Six months after a brutal assault at Kingstown Preparatory School (KPS) left a 9-year-old boy requiring life-saving brain surgery, his single mother is opening up about the relentless physical, emotional, and financial toll of the attack, speaking exclusively to iWitness News on condition of anonymity – a request the family first made in 2025 and has reaffirmed for this reporting.
The unprovoked attack unfolded on October 22, 2025, when an older student at KPS grabbed the young boy by the head, slammed it into a classroom door, then forced his skull onto unforgiving concrete flooring. At the time, the boy’s mother had been working overseas, and she was forced to cut short her employment and rush back to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) to authorize urgent medical intervention. What followed was far worse than anyone initially expected: after surgeons at Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH) performed an emergency craniotomy to access the boy’s brain, they discovered a severe case of meningitis that had left 100 milliliters of pus trapped inside his skull, a complication the family had no idea was developing until the procedure began.
After five months of intensive recovery, the young boy made his first tentative return to classroom learning on March 2, 2026. That small win was cut short, however, when he was required to leave school just three months later on June 8 to undergo a second major procedure: a cranioplasty to replace a bone segment in his right forehead. The four-hour operation was deemed a clinical success, but full recovery is projected to take a full year. Now discharged from the hospital, the boy requires daily at-home wound dressing from his mother, who has been unable to resume her overseas job to prioritize his care.
The mother described her emotional state as a constant, exhausting whirlwind of anger, frustration, crippling anxiety, and deep-seated fear, with overwhelming fatigue hanging over every day. “This is the second surgery, and it feels like we’re right back to square one,” she shared. “Some days I feel anxious, while some days are normal; but some days, I feel really tired. I don’t even know how to feel most days – I’m just overwhelmed.”
The long-term health impacts of the assault have already reshaped the boy’s life permanently. Before the attack, he had no history of seizures or vision issues, but now he experiences regular headaches, blurred vision in his right eye, sudden seizure episodes, and recurring fevers that require lifelong antiseizure medication. While he adapted well to his brief return to school and has kept close friendships with his classmates, his mother notes he has grown far quieter than he was before the attack, rarely opening up about the pain he endures.
What has compounded the family’s hardship, the mother says, is the complete lack of outreach from key parties that should have stepped forward to support them. Only KPS school leadership and the institution’s guidance counselor have checked in consistently with the family and offered ongoing concern. To date, she has received no communication whatsoever from the Ministry of Education, nor from the family of the older student who carried out the attack. “I don’t understand how something like this can happen and I have never heard from the ministry. This is really hard for me at times,” she said.
As a single mother currently living with her mother and siblings in SVG, she says she has been left without sustained formal support, and the situation often feels deeply depressing. Still, she expressed sincere gratitude to the community members and organizations that have stepped up to fill the gap: businesswoman Karen Veira of Singer and Oxygen Mas, the leadership of Stubbs Primary School, the Calliaqua Methodist Church, KPS administration, and her immediate family, all of whom have provided critical assistance in the months since the attack.
Looking ahead, the mother says she cannot predict when her son will be able to resume full-time schooling, as his return to the classroom requires formal medical clearance from his treating neurologist. He has already missed scheduled end-of-term exams due to his second surgery, adding another layer of uncertainty to his education. The mother also confirmed that she plans to consult with a legal advisor to pursue next steps in addressing the assault and its catastrophic aftermath.