The Evangelical Parliamentary Front and the Parliamentary front on the Family and Support to Life submitted on Tuesday (17) a representation to the Attorney General of the Republic, Antonio Barros de Souza, claiming for clarifications on the death of the indigenous child Tititu Suruwahá on January 19th.

The girl, who had undergone a surgery in September 2005, because of a genetic problem (pseudo-hermaphrodites), needed constant medical care to survive, but would not have received the necessary assistance from the National Health Foundation (Funasa) and of the National Indian Foundation (Funai).

The request for an investigation was made by the Deputies João Campos (PSDB-GO), Pastor Pedro Ribeiro (PMDB-CE), Rodovalho (DEM-DF) and Henrique Afonso (PT-AC). They want to know if there has been negligence from government, what the real cause for the death was, and how she died.

Tradition
The deputies inform that, according to the cultural tradition of the girl’s ethnicity (Suruwahá), children born with any disability are not accepted and are often killed by their families. The parents of Tititu, though, decided to seek medical treatment and got her to undergo a surgery after the release of the case at the Fantástico TV-show, broadcasted by Globo Network.

After the surgery, she was supposed to undergo regular exams as part of the treatment, every 3 or 4 months, to count hormones and supply of medicines. If she stayed more than three days without taking them in the right doses, she risked to die of dehydration.

Trouble
According to the congresspeople, Funasa committed to follow up on Tititu’s health and to guarantee the exams and medicines, which had been determined by the Department of Justice. Those medicines cost less than R$10.00 (around US$4.00) and could be found in any pharmacy.

According to the deputies, though, Funasa did not always send the medicines and supply the exams in time. In addition to that, Funai quit the follow-up on the case. Tititu, then, would have lacked medical assistance and died of dehydration.

From the newsroom/JPJ
Translation – Positive Idiomas Ltda