Miracle in the forest
Bissoondaye Geeta Seenath recovering in hospital
By Susan Mohammed susan.mohammed@trinidadexpress.com
FOR seven days, Bissoondaye Geeta Seenath consumed nothing but water flowing in streams from the Rio Seco waterfall in Toco, near where she got lost more than a week ago.
During the seven days she wandered in the forested terrain searching for civilisation, she screamed at helicopters circling above her hoping to be rescued and shouted for help when she heard voices which she thought were nearby.
But her hope of reuniting with her family and friends grew dim, until at one point she begged God to take her life.
This is according to Seenath’s family, who yesterday rejoiced that the 46-year-old Princes Town mother of three was found on Saturday afternoon at Salybia/Mathura Trace, near Toco.
Seenath’s sister, Champa Singh, said: “During the time in the forest she said she was in a lot of pain and hungry. She kept near the river to try to find a way out. One night she was resting by a tree and a snake crawled near her ear. She screamed and ran away. She found a stick and she used that to help her walk because her feet were so sore and swollen.”
Seenath went to the home of Jerod Nelson, also known as “Wire”, around 2 p.m. Saturday, one mile along Salybia/Mathura Trace.
Nelson’s home was the second house at which she went calling for help, Seenath told her family.
At the first house, a man told her to leave his premises and “go down the road”.
Nelson said he was seasoning chicken when he looked out and saw Seenath limping on the road.
Nelson told the Express: “I came out and saw her in the yard. Immediately I knew it was her from the clothes she had on. She asked for something to eat and drink, she said she was hungry. I told her everyone is looking for her. I put Limacol on her head and she said she was cold. I gave her clothes and blankets and a meal—pat choi, bodi and rice. I called people and told them she was here. I called 999.”
Local Government councilor Terry Rondon and police came to Nelson’s house and Seenath was taken to Sangre Grande District Hospital where she remained yesterday.
Seenath’s daughter, Roshnie Seenath, reunited with her mother at hospital and said her mother told her she is very hungry and wished for solid foods, but doctors have ordered she drink only fluids and be fed intravenously as she nurses back to health.
Her father, Mohan Seenath, thanked all who assisted in the search and rescue operation which had been launched since Seenath went missing last week Saturday.
And to the people who disbelieve Seenath’s story, the family said the evidence of her starvation, desolation and being stranded in the forest, with nothing but a tree branch for a walking stick as company, is evident on her body.
“When you look at her in the hospital you can see that she went under stress. She can barely walk or talk. One of her shoulders is dislocated. She has so many cuts and bruises,” said Mohan Seenath.
Roshnie Seenath said: “We heard that people had called the mister (Nelson) and told him all sorts of things, that she was at his home all the time. That is not true. He has been very helpful from the first day mom went missing and he is a kind-hearted person. He joined the search party and he opened his home to persons who wanted to stay overnight to help.”
Nelson said: “She told me of her ordeal while in the bush. When the night came, she prayed to die because mosquitoes were biting her and she could not rest. If she did not have any injuries I might have believed that it was a ‘framed-story’. But she came out limping and with so many injuries.”
Singh said she never gave up hope that her sister would be found alive, since her pundit, Roopnarine Maharaj, had predicted that she would be found in that area.
Singh said on Wednesday she and Maharaj and others went to the area and stopped at Nelson’s house, where she gave him her phone number to call if he received information on Seenath.
Seenath, 46, of Chappel Street, told her family that she had lost her way while walking along a trail from the waterfall to head back to a beach in Salybia to rejoin others with whom she came to the area on a bus.
A massive search party of police, soldiers, sniffer dogs, villagers, friends and family of Seenath, together with aerial support of helicopters, had combed through miles of forested terrain for seven days since Seenath went missing shortly after 4.30 p.m. on June 8, but found no trace of her.
I think that God definitely sent a angel to get her out of the forest... I hope she gets better soon.
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