News

A mother's nightmare

By ANDREA DOWNER, Staff Reporter

TENNESHA RANKIN, 24, is caught in the middle of a nightmare. Three months ago, her five children between the ages of two to five years-old were diagnosed with levels of lead in their blood that were high enough to kill them.

They were hospitalised for one month and then sent to a children's home as their home still had dangerous levels of lead.

Anthony Phillips, the father of the children, has been in jail at the Horizon Remand Centre on Spanish Town Road since 2001, as even though he was offered bail, no one has bailed him. His bail now stands at $80,000.

His lawyer, Valerie Neita-Robertson, told THE STAR he is awaiting a retrial, as a trial that was held in 2001 for a charge brought against him, ended in a hung jury.

With her children in a children's home and their father in jail for the past three years, Tennesha's life consists of visiting him in jail and her children at the home, when she has enough money for bus fare.

Her life is now empty and her home is silent without her children's laughter and presence.

Alone in misery

Tennesha claims she is alone in her misery and is close to a nervous breakdown as she does not get enough support from persons at the Ministry of Health, employees at the children's home or the social worker assigned to the case. She said even though she lives in Mona Commons, right across the street from the University Hospital of the West Indies, at times, her children are taken there for treatment without her knowledge. She said sometimes when she goes to visit them at the home that is when she is told they had been taken to the hospital.

Just last week, Tennesha visited the offices of THE STAR in tears after she had visited the children's home and was told one of her children, three-year-old Cardo, had been rushed to the UHWI after he started having seizures.

"Mi need some help fi get back mi children dem, she implored," as she stood in confusion, uncertain of the severity of Cardo's condition before she left in a hurry to to visit him at the hospital.

Dr. Sandra Chambers, Medical Officer of Health at the health department told THE STAR that while five children were admitted with elevated levels of lead between 198 and 202, at the time they were discharged from hospital, their lead levels were all under 26. Lead levels of more than 40 is considered life threatening.

Continous monitoring

She said however, their lowered lead levels is not an indication that they are out of danger as the lead reading is an indication of the amount of lead in the children's blood. She explained that lead is deposited in the bones and the medication that is being administered to them can only remove lead from their blood. The bones then transmit more lead into their blood. Because of this, their medication and monitoring will be a continuous process. Dr. Chambers said while the children will not have to be on medication all their lives, they wil still be monitored even when they are no longer being treated.

She said any damage done by lead poisoning is irreversible and that absorption of excessive levels of lead can cause retardation, low IQ and learning disorders. She said an assessment is to be done on Tennesha's children to determine how and to what extent their high lead absorption will affect them.

As Tennesha continues her daily struggle, she is praying desperately that she will be able to get a piece of land on which to erect a house that Food for the Poor has promised to give her, so she can get her children back before they are 18-years old.

'Please, I am asking anyone out there who can, to help, so that I can get my children back," Tennesha implored, her voice filled with tears and her face a mask of misery. She said she is willing to accept donations towards the purchase of land so she can get her children back.