It could have been a sad misfortune of the hot summer months: a young child accidentally drowning as she went to take a swim; but the death of a 10 year old foster child is far more tragic. The child's mother who was stripped of custody of her two daughters by the Department of Social Services, had been fighting to get her children back, only to find out this morning, from a secondary source, that her older child had drowned while in foster care. Tonight, the Department of Social Services is looking for answers, and this dispossessed mother is fighting to get back her other child.
Bernadine Fitzgibbon,
[November 2004] "I have two little girls and I don't want Social to take them away because when Social takes them away it will be a problem to get them back."
That was the plea made by Bernadine Fitzgibbon in November of 2004, when we found her living in Battlefield Park with her two children 3-year-old Moesha and 9-year-old Natalie. Despite her plea, in July of last year, the Department of Human Services had to step in because Fitzgibbon was deemed by a court of law unable to care for her children.
Ava Pennil, Director - Human Development Dept.
"The children came to the care of the Department either because they are suffering harm or they might suffer harm."
Trying to avoid that, three weeks ago the children were placed in a home called Belize Christian Efforts. On Sunday care-providers from the home took the children out on a recreational trip to Belize-R-Us.
Ava Pennil,
"The home where the child was situated went on a Father's Day outing to Belize-R-Us. They first went to a church where they had a Father's Day outing and they had a good barbecue and stuff to eat and after that they went to Belize-R-Us to do ice cream and cake because it was one of the children's birthday as well. So they went to celebrate the birthday at Belize-R-Us. While at Belize-R-Us they went swimming and bathing and for some reason this child went under. They brought the child back out. The child was resuscitated and I understand that the child started to vomit part of the food that she had ingested earlier and by the time the ambulance got there, I don't know if she was pronounced dead there or on her way-I am not certain of the details of it. We are doing an investigation now to try to come up with all the details of the case."
Bernadine Fitzgibbon,
"This morning I came to town and people are telling that my daughter was dead. I asked which one of them and they said the big one. So I took it to heart and I went to hospital at the morgue and when I went in I told the undertaker man to show me my little girl. When I went, I saw the sheet full of blood but I still didn't pass a remark or anything. I then started to cry because my little girl went left me."
Today a desperate Fitzgibbon visited the social services department to try to get her other child back because she fears that 4-year-old Moesha will meet the same fate as her older sibling Natalie.
Alfonso Noble,
Do you think that if the child was under your care she would have died like this?
Bernadine Fitzgibbon,
"I don't think so because I don't take my babies to river or anywhere like that. It's normally from Belize City to home where they bathe their skin,
drink their tea, and go to bed. That is how I handle my kids. I want my next baby. I don't want them to have my baby anywhere. They have them under the order of the court but which court. One of my little girls is dead and what happens to the next one. I want my baby. I don't feel like she is safe. I just want my next child and she is a girl too. I am fearful for the life of the next daughter. Just tell them to please bring back my daughter because I will get crazy on them at Social and they'll be left with their mouths open."
Alfonso Noble,
Are you able to take care of your next daughter?
Bernadine Fitzgibbon,
"Yes sir I am able to take care of my next daughter because I can take care of my self."
Ava Pennil,
"We have an order from the court and she would have to apply to the court to vary the order. She would have to apply to the court and prove to the court that she can adequately care for her child."
Ava Pennil is the CEO in the Human Services Department and she shares Fitzgibbon's fear. She says that the incident is a tragedy and her department is conducting a complete investigation into the incident.
Ava Pennil,
"Whenever there is a incident, not necessarily a death, any small incident in any home, we are obliged to investigate what exactly happened to see if there is negligence or just to find out what happened and if there is anything we can do to ensure it doesn't happen again because it is a lot of children we have in care and we don't want any such things to be happening with these children.
It is unfortunate that it happened; I think it shouldn't have happened. The only way something like that should happen under the care, under the Department's care, is something that is a complete accident, something that could not be prevented. So we have to determine if it fits that bill, that what happened could not have been prevented. If it could have been prevented then that's another matter.
Its what we would never happened. It is something that we always try to guard against. We monitor the children in homes, we monitor any information coming out of homes, and it is exterminable regrettable and we have to just continue monitoring it. We've had restrictions on the use of water, restriction on children bathing, and it just seems that water is always the thing so we need to not have them swim at all. You see its hard to do that because you place these children in a home and when they get opportunities to visit, they do things that they would not normally do. And these children go horse back riding, they get experience a lot of things but each of these things carry a risk and we have to make sure that the risk that we carry is a minimal risk."
Risk that on Sunday became too real leaving this mother questioning the ability of a home and institution to care for another one of her children who is still under their care.
7NEWS has determined that there were 9 children at the pool swimming under the care of two adults however at the time only one person was supervising the children. Signs at the pool note that any child swimming should be properly supervised as no lifeguard is on duty.
