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Jan 23, 2010 Sports
– national junior athlete, Rigby passes on
By Edison Jefford
The sports fraternity, and more specifically the disciplines of athletics and volleyball, was plunged into mourning Thursday night when national junior athlete, Roxanna Rigby died on her way to the Georgetown Hospital after a brief illness.
The 18-year-old Rigby of 161 Public Road Rosignol Village, West Bank Berbice was one of three children for Avril and Ovid Rigby. Her other siblings included a younger brother, Oquana Rigby and an Antigua-based sister, Onika.
She was born on April 21, 1991 and last represented Guyana at the Inter-Guiana’s Games in Suriname last September as a member of the national junior volleyball team. She was a member of the Athletics Guiana Games team in 2008.
Rigby was present at the Athletics Association of Guyana Award Ceremony two Sundays ago at the YMCA Hall. Her mother, Avril told Kaieteur Sport yesterday that there was an overwhelming sense of discomfort following the event.
Mrs Rigby said that the athlete called her last Tuesday and complained about feeling sick, following which she was instructed to travel home. Roxanna followed the instruction and arrived in Rosignol, Berbice three days later, on Friday.
“She wasn’t feeling good from here (before she left Berbice to attend the Ceremony). She had a little temperature like a fever and I gave her some Theraflu. She seemed to be ok on what I saw before she left for Georgetown,” Mrs Rigby noted.
This newspaper caught up with Roxanna at the Award Ceremony and as had become part of her character, she joked about the upcoming athletics season and her plans flashing her trademark smile and shying away under her soft voice.
“When she came home, she had diarrhoea on Saturday and I took her to Mahaicony at the Hospital. They sent us away and told us to come back Monday. We went back Monday to get tablets for vomiting and diarrhoea,” Mrs Rigby continued.
The vomiting and diarrhoea did not get worse according to Mrs Rigby, however Roxanna cried out for pains in the upper part of her left leg on Wednesday. In addition, she was not eating, which indicated signs of Anorexia Nervosa.
Around Wednesday midday, she was rushed to the Forth Wellington Hospital. She could not walk on her own and was administered saline after Mrs Rigby informed the doctor of her conditions and all the preceding developments.
“She got an injection and saline. I left her there and went back around 3pm (Wednesday). I asked her if the doctor attended to her and she said no. So I got some olive oil and I rub it on her foot and the pain eased,” Mrs Rigby indicated.
After that first issuance of saline, Mrs Rigby said that the Nurses at the Forth Wellington Hospital told her that Roxanna has to take more saline, which were vitamins. That period last until around 5pm before the athlete was admitted.
“The nurses told me after the second saline that she doesn’t look too good and will have to be admitted for the night,” Roxanna’s mother related, adding that she was in good spirits all the while as her conversations would have indicated.
Mrs Rigby said that when she went back to the Hospital on Thursday, she learnt that a lot of efforts were being made to transfer Roxanna to the Georgetown Hospital because there were no improvements to her overnight conditions.
Roxanna reportedly told her mother that there was no feeling in her bottom right foot that was in addition to the pain in her upper left foot. “I just thought that the pain had moved a great deal from the other foot,” Mrs Rigby highlighted.
She stated that the effort to transfer her daughter was stalled when they had to wait on the ambulance to arrive. When it came, the parent was apparently told that two more patients and a nurse had to be collected at the Mahaicony Hospital.
It was on this journey from the Forth Wellington Hospital to the Mahaicony facility that a promising junior athlete met her demise. She was enroute to Georgetown but passed on in the vicinity of Number 28 Village, West Coast Berbice.
“She was talking to me all the time on our way then I saw this look on her face like if she was smiling. She asked me ‘mommy how far we deh’ and I told her Number 28. She said ‘ok’ and I just see her head go right back,” Mrs Rigby informed.
Roxanna had literally dominated the junior sprint events locally for three straight years at the athletic association and schools level. She is currently the national junior 100 and 200 metres champion at both levels of competition.
Her dominance blazed a trail for counterparts, Nisa Alleyne, Mercedes Forde and Nadine Rodrigues with whom she shared a very close relationship. She has left an incredible void on the local athletics scene that will be hard to fill.
Kaieteur Sport joins in the expression of condolences to the family and friends of the late Roxanna Rigby. Up to press time yesterday, information on her post mortem and funeral arrangements were not available.
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