Cherishsiliala Tahuri-Wright
2002 - January 31, 2006
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All Nofosione Wright is asking is
for someone to tell him why his
daughter has died.
Nofosione is upset, shocked and
angry about the death of his
daughter, Cherish. Cherish was
found with severe head injuries in
the house where her maternal
grandmother, her grandmothers
partner and a one other child, on
February 17, 2009. Two days later, Cherish would
be taken off |
of life support and she would die at Wellington Regional
Hospital, she was only three years old.
Nofosione said that he visited Cherish every night.
Living in Cannons
Creek, which is near Poiriua, where Cherish lived
with Gina Marie
Tahuri, her mother he would take her for rides
in the car or to go shopping. Nofosione was planning to buy Cherish her
first bicycle this year:
"It's so sad. I want to know what happened,
I still don't know. I just don't know why. I'm not thinking well, I feel
like everything that came before Cherish's
death was
so good, she was all I wanted"
Nofosione said that his daughter was supposed to
go to the home of
her grandmother, in Marton, but, only for a few
days. He had not wanted her to go at all. Cherish was going to go to a
birthday party. As it turned out, Cherish was there for almost three weeks.
On February 17, 2009, an ambulance was called to
the home where
Cherish lived. Neighbors said that Cherish was
gasping for breath and
she was bloodied, before the emergency services
got there.
Nofosione was angry and said he couldn't even think
about going to
the home where she lived. He talked about what
a wonderful little girl
she was, that she loved the color pink and she
was "getting smart":
"She was always talking even though she couldn't
say
the words. When she would say, "Shut up'",
it wouldn't
even come out clearly. It sounded like "shup'"
Police were working to do a thorough investigation
and trying to find
out exactly how Cherish was injured:
"It's a case of working with medical professionals
to
see what they can tell us, and what the scene
can tell
us, and what the family can tell us, piecing
that together
to find how the injuries were caused"
Kim Perks
Police Central District Communications Manager
On February 19, 2009, Cherish was taken off of life
support and she
died. Police launched a homicide investigation
after Cherish was taken off of life support saying that the injuries she
suffered were not being treated as an accident. A post mortem was done
to find out the cause of her injuries:
"Following detailed consultation we are satisfied
that
the injuries could not have been caused by
accident and
that we are in fact investigating a homicide.
Cases
involving children are always emotionally
charged so
it has been important for us to take our
time liaising
with medical professionals and not jump to
any
conclusions"
Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan
Police did investigate and check out the house where
Cherish lived
knowing that it was possible that a homicide had
been committed
there.
"I take comfort in knowing that those thorough
actions
will assist us in seeking justice for Cherish
and her family"
Detective Sergeant Craig Sheridan said that the
family of Cherish was
cooperating and that an investigation had been
launched, though no
charges had been made at that time and that 20
officers were working on the case along with a team of ESR scientists:
“It is tragic news that this little
girl has died. From
an investigative point of view nothing has
changed.
The investigation from the outset has been
thorough
and has been about establishing how the child
was
injured and keeping an open mind. Until we
have confirmation of how the child was injured that
situation remains the same”
Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan
A neighbor said that the grandmother had come to
her home and was upset:
"She was jittery and panicky. She was saying
'I don't know what to do'"
anonymous neighbor
The neighbor called police and then an ambulance.
The grandmother
and the neighbor both went to see Cherish:
"She was laying in her bed. It looked like she
was asleep,
she was sort of gasping for breath - they said
it was sort of
like asthma. She had bruises on the face, she
was bleeding
from the mouth."
Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan, of Palmerston
North, who
is the head of an investigation team said:
"It is tragic news that this little girl has
died. From an
investigative point of view nothing has changed.
Our staff
are working very closely with the young girl's
family to
attempt to estimate where the injury occurred.
I see the next
three days being pretty full on. We will be
supporting the family,
but here in Marton we need to be making some
progress
around the house."
A three year old boy was taken to Child, Youth And
family custody,
He was not a sibling of Cherish. Craig Sheridan
said that this was the
best option for this boy at the time. At the time,
the grandmother
was going to stay with a friend while the house
was being checked.
The friend said that the grandmother was unstable
since the child
had been taken to the hospital and that the grandmothers
partner
was confused about what happened.
On February 4, 2009, there were questions
as for why it took the
ambulance crew about 2 1/2 hours to get Cherish
to the hospital. The St John Ambulance stated that an internal investigation
was being
conducted to figure out why officers took so much
time to call a
rescue helicopter for transport. At 12:15pm, emergency
services were called and it wasn't until 2:40pm that Cherish actually arrived
at the
hospital:
"It really pisses me off to think they dicked
around for a couple
of hours while a little girl was dying. You
don't have to be Einstein
to work out a child with head injuries has to
go straight to hospital any parent would know that instinctively"
Family spokeswoman and Porirua Deputy Mayor
Litea Ah Hoi
The drive from Feilding is only about 25 minutes
away from the home
where Cherish was. An ambulance was sent from Wanganui,
however
it was called back when it was five minutes away
because a rescue
helicopter had been called. At a little before
1:00pm, the helicopter was called and Cherish arrived at the Palmerston
North Hospital at about 2:40pm.
A paramedic at St John said that the ambulance officer
who had been
the first one to respond asked for backup as soon
as he realized that
he didn't have the experience necessary to treat
injuries as bad as the
ones Cherish had. The paramedic sighted this as
another sign that the
ambulance service was at a point of crisis:
"Why wasn't she taken taken straight to hospital?
That's the
big question. This kind of disorganisation is
normal to us,
it happens all the time"
The paramedic also said he was shocked that Cherish
was not taken
to the hospital immediately and that the delay
was unacceptable:
"The whole thing's woefully inadequate. It was
2 1/2 hours
before that child got to hospital. She was in
a critical state and t
hat's when they need to get to hospital in a
very short time"
It was confirmed by at St John spokeswoman that
a local doctor, who
was employed by the ambulance service, was sent
to the attend to
Cherish after the emergency call came. Detective
Senior Sergeant
Craig Sheridan claimed that the ambulance response
was "first rate".
It was his understanding that the delay was due
to the time it had
taken to get Cherish stabilized for transportation.
The criticism of the
treatment of Cherish comes along just as the Health
Minister Tony
Ryall announced a $10. million dollar injection
for the ambulance
sector.
On March 3, 2009, Police confirmed
that the investigation had shown the injuries that were inflicted upon
Cherish were
NOT an accident. A homicide investigation had been
started.
On April 2, 2009, St John came out
in defense of their care and treatment of Cherish. Their findings showed
that there WAS an
immediate response, by ambulance, to the home where
Cherish had
been living.
In his statement, Tony Blaber, St John Operations
Director said that
the findings show an Advanced Life Support capable
Doctor had been
on the scene within 19 minutes and a double crewed
ambulance
had arrived within the next minute:
"In addition a clinical manager with specialist
skills, an Advanced
Life Support emergency helicopter and an Advanced
Life Support
crew from Wanganui were also mobilized. The
patient received
high level clinical care at the scene and needed
to be stabilized
before being transported to hospital in an air
ambulance"
Tony Blaber
The investigation shows that the care given to Cherish
was of a high
standard and her treatment had no impact on the
final outcome of the case. Tony Blaber said that further investigation
is required and that
and internal investigation is taking place. The
union who represents
a group of ambulance offices claims that St John
is short staffed on
the ground:
"It needs a large overhauling and I believe it
should ideally be a
state run system either by the fire service
or Primary
Health Organization"
Jim Bilby from the Central Ambulance Association
St John agrees and says it is no secret that they
are short of drivers
for ambulances:
"We have claimed often and loud that we are under
resourced
as an ambulance service"
Tony Blaber
Tony Blaber said that St John sends their condolences
to the family of
Cherish and they want to let them know that this
case is being taken
very seriously.
Please
click here to read something that was sent to me
by
a friend of Cherish's mother and see some pictures
she
also sent.
Read
news articles related to this story.
Return
to Cherish's Story
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For information about preventing child abuse in New
Zealand, click the links below. If they can't help you, ask for someone
who can. NEVER give up looking for help for an abused child!
Call this number to report
child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child
1-800-422-4453
  
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