Sunday Soyemi, the Chief Pathologist of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), has revealed the cause of Sylvester Oromoni’s death.
During an examination-in-chief conducted by Babajide Martins, Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), at the Coroner’s Inquest held at the Ikeja Magistrate Court in Lagos, on Tuesday, Soyemi said there were no physical injuries that resulted in Oromoni’s death.
He said that the former 12-year-old student at Dowen College, Lekki, suffered from severe sepsis due to a bacterial infection that spread through his bloodstream.
According to Soyemi, this discovery was made during an autopsy he conducted in the presence of 14 other pathologists on January 14. This was the second time an autopsy was conducted on the deceased.
His findings on cause of death were documented in Oromoni’s death certificate as sepsis caused by lobar pneumonia, pyelonephritis and a leg infection.
The leg infection, Soyemi noted, was not caused by an open wound as would have been the case if he had suffered a bruise from the football match he allegedly took part in.
When Martins asked why this was not discovered during the first autopsy conducted by Clement Vhriterhire,the pathologist who conducted an autopsy on the instruction of the Oromoni family, Soyemi described Vhriterhire’s autopsy as poorly done.
BOTCHED AUTOPSY ‘CAUSED THIS CONTROVERSY‘
“He did not look into the lungs; he did not detach it from the heart. If he had done that and weighed the lungs, their weight alone would tell him something was wrong with the lungs,” Soyemi remarked of Vhriterhire. “These are a few of the many things that he did not do. I will say he did a botched autopsy.”
Vhriterhire was one of the 14 pathologists present during Soyemi’s autopsy. During the conduct, he was quizzed on why he did not open the oesophagus or trachea, the two organs every noxious chemical must pass through to reach the stomach.
When Soyemi examined these organs, he found no damage to their linings to indicate the passage of any harmful chemical through them as documented in Vhriterhire’s findings earlier reported by FIJ.
“At the first autopsy, the pathologist never opened the oesophagus. The oesophagus is the food pipe. He also did not open the trachea. These are vital things he shouldn’t have missed out,” the chief pathologist posited.
“He concluded the report as chemical intoxication. For one to be intoxicated with chemical, that chemical has to pass through the oesophagus, so if one has not opened the food pipe, he can never talk about chemical intoxication.”
He said if the first autopsy had been properly conducted, it would have put the controversy to bed.
HOW THE INFECTION WENT UNNOTICED AND LED TO DEATH
Much has been reported about how attempts to get Oromoni to join a cult, and a football match may have caused the young boy’s death, but when Olumide Akinnini, counsel for Kenneth Inyang, one of the Dowen College students accused of bullying Sylvester, asked Soyemi to shed light on how long an infection may be in a body before it becomes critical, the pathologist said the infection can remain in the body for months before it reaches a critical stage.
He said the leg infection spread when the family applied pressure during massage sessions, leading to complications and further damage through his body.
Asked what the doctors could have done to arrest the situation, Soyemi said, “What he needed was massive antibiotics, intravenous drip and blood transfusion”.
He went further to give the court a crash course on four types of death; accidental, misadventure, homicide and natural deaths. He described Oromoni’s death as natural but preventable.
According to him, the doctor who ordered the laboratory test in Delta, which was conducted on November 26, 2021, should have put Oromoni in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where his vitals should have been monitored every hour, an effort that could have saved his life.
Mikhail Kadiri, the magistrate heading the inquest, adjourned the sitting until February 14, when Oromoni’s father would take the witness stand.
Oromoni reportedly died on November 30, 2021, because of injuries sustained during an attack by five older Dowen College students for refusing to join a cult. His attackers allegedly forced him to ingest unpleasant fluid.
Source: FIJ
