On Saturday, Belize recorded its first COVID-19 paediatric death. The victim, 6-year-old Arturo Godoy, a boy who had kidney disease as a pre existing condition.
Arturo died in the KHMH's Covid unit but he was transferred there from the Northern Regional hospital in his native Orange Walk.
Cherisse Halsall traveled there this morning to speak to the boy's father and teachers about the young life cut off far too soon.
I'm standing in front of Louisiana Government School, the last school at which 6-year-old Arturo Godoy was enrolled. But because of Covid prevention measures and distance learning, he'd never even set foot here.
Still, he managed to make an impact:
Deborah Palacio, Principal
"In September the infant two's had a little activity to try and uplift the children so that they could feel the September spirit and he did an excellent poem, I mean we were all shocked when we saw what he did, showing that this child definitely had a bright future ahead."
But that future was cut short when Arturo contracted COVID-19. The family had gone to extraordinary lengths to protect him - they had to, because he'd been battling kidney failure for the better part of two years. So they quit their jobs, worked from home, and pooled groceries to make sure everybody could eat. Still, his chronic illness took him back to the Northern Regional Hospital - where his family believes he contracted COVID 19.
Cherisse Halsall:
"Sir, where would you believe that your son contracted COVID?"
Arturo Godoy Sr., Father of the deceased
"Over there because, over there or at Orange Walk. Over there because all of us stay right here, none of us has anything, none of us has any symptom of that. All of them, he is not working, he is not working, all of them are not working because all of you are a family. You would put money, we put it together and we buy all the groceries ma'am, we put it together and we don't come out. Why? Because of my same son that he is sick."
"They know my baby, Orange Walk hospital knows my baby's problem and so they told me Mr. Godoy we don't have this kind of medicine for him right now so we'll send him to Belize. So the next day in the evening they rushed him over there because he really needed his medicine because he's in treatment of that."
Godoy Sr. says his son took a turn for the worse once they got to Belize City. That's where the boy experienced complications - eventually coming down with pneumonia.
Arturo suffered a great deal and according to his father, the bedside manner of his doctors didn't help.
Arturo Godoy Sr., Father of the deceased
"And when I went to Belize they took him in a room that nobody went in there, nobody, only me and my son. This doctor came in and told me, Mr. Godoy your son is positive and you need to go, I asked him why he's a little six-year-old child. He is crying for me, he is crying for his mother. I am right there and he is still crying for his mother, if I wasn't there then what. So now he told me I couldn't do anything so now I will stay because if my baby is positive then I am positive because I'm right here with him."
"If you are positive, he told me and you want to stay. I will put you in the adult room, not with him. When I moved from over there from the hospital I told him, son you will have to stay by yourself because they don't want me right here."
"Daddy I don't want to stay by myself, I told him Hijo if I stay police will come and they will take me and I won't know of you and I won't know of your mom i told him, daddy deja phone he said:" Deja me phone para que yo te llame," I told him yes hijo."
Cherisse Halsall:
"So when he died who was with him?"
Arturo Godoy Sr., Father of the deceased
"Nobody ma'am, nobody, nobody was with him right that's all my anger that's all everything ma'am because I didn't see my baby nothing since Wednesday, I don't know anything about my son."
"My baby, he was a good child right, everybody knows him when he was small he went to school, he asked to go to school when he was two years and a half, two years and a half, small little boy and he wanted, he wanted, and he wanted to go to school."
It was as if Arturo knew that he had to get a jump start on life, and that's just what he did, charming everyone he met.
Lenny Umana, Principal, La Inmaculada R.C.
"Arturo was enrolled here at Pre-school so he started here at pre-school. When he came, although vibrant his very first day I think the teacher started to realize that the child was in a situation when it came to his health. His parents, i think, made an effort to reach out to the school and the school found a way how to assist Arturo with his illness as much as we could as a school."
"I'm so happy that our school was able to give him two years of a childhood experience that he really enjoyed and valued and that picture of him coming out as a mestizo for our cultural day will forever live on our thoughts and it was the first occasion that we saw him participate fully with his little outfit. He became part of who we were."
Gilda Gideon, Infant 1 teacher
"When it comes to a child and then we're looking t this COVID situation it makes us like think and it should stop us and make us have an eye opening with many things as a community, am I contributing to this spread am I the one who is not taking the necessary precautions because this child, yes he was sick but it's not because the mom war irresponsible or the family. I am sure because I know the mom, she was the one that would take care of him take care of him."
Deborah Palacio, Principal
"I was the one that spoke with her when she came to transfer the child into our school in September, because of his health condition she wanted him to be closer to home so that he was not exposed to too much sunlight and things like that. She is a mom that really tried her best with her child, as she has expressed he was ill for about two years and she had been up and down with the doctors to see what was wrong with him and I guess covid just made it worse."
Arturo's death makes him Belize's first pediatric COVID fatality. It's a tragedy both for his family and the entire Orange Walk community. But is it a wake-up call? Gilda Gideon, Arturo's infant 1 teacher can only hope so. And this morning when she spoke to us about her little student she gave an impassioned plea for public caution.
Gilda Gideon, Infant 1 teacher
"It is each and every one of us who are going around partying, having groups and having gatherings and so on and we may not know if we have COVID and then we go back to this other person and this person connects so it's a chain, it's a web. So I could say I contributed to this. It's like an alarm and eye-opening that all of us, especially in Orange Walk we need to have and say like, a child has died so it's like what, what am I going to do? I need to show and I need to do my part so that this doesn't happen again."
If you'd like to offer any assistance to Arturo Sr. and Linda Godoy to help them bring little Arturo's body back to Orange Walk you can contact them at 622-3684.
As to where the child contracted COVID 19, we reached out to the Director Of Health Services, Dr. Marvin Manzanero for comment on whether the boy may have contracted it in a hospital.
He says that Arturo was positive when he arrived at the K.H.M.H - so he would have had to contract it before that. But was it at home or at the Northern Regional? Manzanero said he was unable to discuss any test results for family members - the father claims none of them have been swabbed.
