Gerson de Melo Machado was a 19-year-old boy with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, like his mother, and the dream of traveling to Africa to tame lions. He died brutally this Sunday after invading the cage of a lioness, in the zoobotanical park of João Pessoa (Brazil), and being attacked by the feline. It was around ten in the morning when Machado climbed a six-meter wall with great agility, overcame the protective panels of the cage, hugged a palm tree and calmly descended down it to the interior, where the animal called Leona He was lying in the sun, according to videos recorded by other visitors. In seconds, Leona He gets up and attacks him. Known as CowboyMachado grew up in the public foster care network, which he had to leave when he turned 18. He ended up in prison. Several professionals who treated him have publicly denounced, this Monday, his helplessness. “It was a tragedy foretold,” according to a prison official. “Gerson had to be in psychiatric treatment, not behind bars,” said a guardianship counselor.
Guardianship counselor Verónica Oliveira has told, on social networks and in interviews with the Brazilian press, details of the life of this boy, whom she met at the age of 10 when the police found him wandering on a highway. His mother had lost custody of her five children because she suffered from severe schizophrenia and her two grandmothers also suffered from the same illness. While the other four siblings were adopted, Machado did not find a new family because he already showed signs of suffering from schizophrenia, saying he heard voices, according to Oliveira. Since he also had no relatives who could take care of him, he grew up in shelters.
The guardianship counselor has said that the diagnosis was delayed, despite the indications. The attitude and incidents that Vaqueirinho experienced as a child and adolescent were attributed by psychiatrists to behavioral problems, not mental ones.
The professional recalled that Machado had no notion of risk. Once they called her from the airport to alert her that they had located him perched on the train of a plane, ready to travel as a stowaway. “When I was little, I said I was going to go to Africa on safari to tame lions,” according to Oliveira.
The guardianship counselor has denounced that, upon reaching the age of majority, the authorities left him helpless. Because his city, João Pessoa, lacks “a shelter where autonomy and reception are worked on, where follow-up can be done. When he turned 18, they left him to his own devices. He left institutional care and entered the prison system,” reports G1. He committed small crimes that landed him in jail, where he received treatment, and then he was released. He came and went several times.
One of the prison officials who treated him, Ivison Lira, has stressed that young Machado behaved like a five-year-old child and needed more help than they could give him in prison. Machado even went to social services in search of psychiatric treatments that he could not follow. “It was a tragedy foretold. Vaqueirinho, without the necessary treatment, without follow-up, on the street. There is the result,” Lira lamented, reports The Globe.
A few days ago that official, head of discipline at the penitentiary, released a video in which he denounced the helplessness of Machado, who committed two crimes in a single day in a desperate attempt to be interned again. The case has generated a debate about the care of mentally ill people in situations of extreme vulnerability, like Machado’s.
The helplessness of those who closely followed Machado’s life path since he was a child and encountered constant difficulties in ensuring that he was treated properly contrasts with the careful care that Leona receives.
The Bica zoobotanical park, in João Pessoa, closed its doors immediately after the deadly attack that followed the cage invasion. Those responsible explained in a video on the zoo’s Instagram profile that they comply with all the required security measures. “Some things we cannot foresee because they are out of the ordinary,” explained veterinarian Thiago Nery, still nervous.
Thanks to regular training, they managed to confine Leona without the need for tranquilizer darts. Nery said that the feline “was stressed, in a state of shock that gradually subsided. She is scared, like the entire team.” [del zoo] and the population.” He added that the animal is “cared for by a team of biologists, technicians and veterinarians who will follow up for weeks, as the protocols dictate, when a wild animal has contact with a human being.”
