by antiaristo » Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:57 pm
I love stories where the little guy makes it<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Boy, three, survives for a fortnight alone in flat with mother's body <br><br>Gerard Seenan<br>Thursday October 20, 2005<br>The Guardian <br><br><br>For two weeks following the unexplained death of his mother, three-year-old Michael McGarrity fended for himself alone in their locked flat.<br>He drank fruit juice and ate cheese, yoghurt, crisps, and whatever he could find in the fridge. He used the toilet, got by as best he could. He was too small to unlock the front door, and had not learned to use the telephone. In desperation, he tried to attract the attention of neighbours by pushing mail through his front door. But for 14 days no one missed the child.<br><br>Yesterday, as agencies examined how such a young child could have been forced to survive alone for so long in a fifth floor flat, he was recovering in hospital in Edinburgh. "Michael is improving every day, and we are glad he is getting better. We are hopeful he can leave hospital soon," said his uncle, Kieran McGarrity, in a statement. "He is beginning to tell us a bit about what happened; but it is very early days, and it will be a long time before we know the whole story."<br>How and why Michael's mother, Anne-Marie, 33, came to die has yet to be discovered. Lothian and Borders police said they did not believe there were any suspicious circumstances, but a postmortem examination yesterday proved inconclusive and further tests will take several days. She had asthma.<br><br>A neighbour, Moira Chisholm, thought something was wrong for several days before the child was discovered."I shouted and shouted through the letter box and I rapped on the door. But Michael never made any sound. Perhaps he couldn't. There were letters hanging out the letterbox. I told the postman to put them back in, but they kept coming out again. It must have been him; I should have known."<br><br>The block where Michael lives is in Leith, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. He was discovered in the flat on Saturday. When staff at his nursery had been unable to contact his mother on the phone, they phoned his grandmother to say the child had not been in. She called the police, and on Saturday night officers found Michael by the side of his dead mother.<br><br>He was badly dehydrated and could barely stand. He had been playing with his Thomas the Tank Engine set.<br><br>Michael was not known to Edinburgh city council's social work department, but the education department said that it was reviewing its procedures after his lengthy absence from nursery was not noted. "While ... there is no requirement for a child to attend, this situation shows that it is very important to establish the reasons why," a spokesman said.<br><br>Neighbours were also questioning yesterday why they had not noticed his plight.<br><br>"Anne-Marie kept herself to herself, but she would always say hello. I hadn't seen her about for a bit, but I didn't think to knock the door. It's terrible to think of that wee guy in there on his own - and you could maybe have helped him had you been a wee bit more neighbourly," said a 22-year-old woman, who did not want to be named.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1596055,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/uk_new...55,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
