A six-year-old girl was yesterday crushed to death by a concrete wall which fell on her at a house under construction at Enterprise Squatting Area, East Coast Demerara, plunging the rural community into deep mourning.
Dead is Stephanie Roopdeo, the only child of her parents Narine and Vashti Roopdeo who live a short distance away at Enterprise Gardens.

She was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival around 17:30 h.

Her grandfather, Ramesh Roopdeo, who tried to save her from the falling wall, received slight injuries.
The grieving grandfather, who is overseeing the building for a family residing in Canada, told the Guyana Chronicle that he had tied a hammock on to the wall for resting under the breezy bottom house. He recalled that around 16:30 h, having just returned from his kitchen garden, when he saw Stephanie get into the hammock.

Suddenly, he saw the wall come tumbling down, along with a purpleheart panel door attached to it. Ramesh said he rushed to little Stephanie, and tried bracing the wall away from her. But he failed in this, and the girl was crushed.
The grandfather said he quickly raised an alarm and family members and neighbours came scurrying over to the scene. They were joined by Stephanie’s father,
Narine, and with the help of her grandmother and other villagers, Ramesh secured a taxi and took the bleeding infant to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the GPH.
There was deep anguish as the news of little Stephanie’s death was broken to her father Narine and her grandparents. From the hospital a cellular call was made to her mother Vashti ,who was not at home at the time of the incident.

The 32-year-old woman arrived at the hospital soon after, and became hysterical when she saw the broken, bloody body of her only child.