“And I tell yinna watch dem chirren.” You can almost hear it now, the frantic, desperate cries of a Bahamian mother distraught over her injured child. Many a parent in the Bahamas, has stood helpless, as doctors gave grave news. For two mothers, in 1916 and 1947, their desperate cries, were answered through the kindness of strangers.
Putting strange and forbidden objects in your mouth, then having your back swatted by a determined hand to get it out, seems to be a right of childhood passage. Sometimes however, objects swallowed can become life threatening for children.
When two Bahamian children had accidentally swallowed swallowed life threatening objects, the kindness of strangers saved them.
The Sapodilla Seed April 1916
Ten year old negro boy named James Henderson had swallowed a sapodilla seed. When nothing could be done in Nassau, a Reverend C. M. Field paid the boy’s way to New York for life saving surgery.
(The Evening Journal, Thursday, April 20, 1916)
The Safety Pin April 1947
Eight year old Harcourt Barr had somehow swallowed an open safety pin. After being examined by the Nassau General Hospital, doctors quickly decided that he needed surgery that could not be done in Nassau. He was airlifted to Miami for an emergency operation.
