Amy’s medical notes missing

A medical doctor, called by the State prosecuting Amy’s stepfather, Marlon King, for cuffing the four-year-old child to death in 2006, told Justice Anthony Carmona and a jury yesterday, that SFGH medical staff cannot find Amy’s notes. Dr Krishna Chris Poolchan had to rely on his memory to give a limited account of the injuries Amy suffered when she was murdered.

Poolchan was the doctor who saw Amy when she was taken in by her mother, Anita, to the SFGH on the night of May 15. Poolchan testified yesterday in the San Fernando High Court. He said “I made notes. I tried to retrieve them from the hospital, but the hospital could not find the notes.” Called by State Attorney Mauricea Joseph, Poolchan said he specialises in Paediatric Emergency medicine, and was the acting registrar on duty at SFGH on the night of May 15, the day Amy was killed. The child was taken into the hospital’s Accident & Emergency department at about 9.30 pm, the doctor said, and he examined her in the resuscitation room.

The State is alleging that a neighbour, Anthony Andre Rocke, peeped through a hole in the door at King’s home in Marabella, at about 11.30 pm on that night and saw King cuffing Amy while the child was hanging by the hair, which was tied with a knotted plastic bag attached to a wooden ledge in a bedroom.

Poolchan said that when he examined Amy that night, the child was unconscious, unresponsive, and without a pulse. He did not attempt to resuscitate Amy because the child appeared to be dead. Poolchan said that Amy was brought into the A&E department by her mother, Anita. In answer to Joseph, Poolchan then said that he examined Amy from head to toe. Amy, he said, had cigarette burns to the chest, abdomen and genitals. So extensive were the injuries to the child’s body, he added, that it would have been too time-consuming to record all the injuries. Poolchan said that he then asked a member of his staff to inform the police about Amy’s death, after which he wrote up the necessary documents for a post-mortem to be conducted.

Joseph then asked Poolchan if he made notes and the doctor replied in the affirmative, but he said, “I made notes. I tried to get them from the hospital, but could not. I tried to retrieve them from the hospital, but the hospital could not find the notes.”

When attorney El Farouk Hosein, instructed by Dereck Dindial, cross-examined Poolchan he asked the doctor if he could tell the age of those injuries. Poolchan reiterated, “I don’t have access to the notes.”

Joseph raised an objection on Hosein’s attempt to adduce the evidence on the age of the injuries, and Carmona put the jury out of the court and hearing.

Forensic pathologist, Dr Hughvon des Vignes, who completed his evidence before Poolchan, was called to the witness box yesterday, had earlier testified that the cuffs to Amy, could have caused the injuries to the child’s heart, liver, spleen, lungs, ribs, face and eyes.

When hearing resumed in the jury’s presence, Poolchan said in answer to Hosein that some of the injuries on Amy’s body were “old” and some were “new”, but he again said that due to his inability to consult with his medical notes he made, he could not give such evidence. “I don’t have the notes here,” Poolchan reiterated.

Carmona then intervened and asked Poolchan: “Are you saying doctor that you are unable to tell the age of the injuries because you cannot remember, and that you are saying that you don’t have the assistance of medical notes, because you cannot retrieve them from the hospital?”

Poolchan: “Correct.”

Carmona: “Are you saying, they cannot be found?”

Poolchan: “I asked hospital staff to source it but they could not find it.”

Carmona: “When you gave evidence in the magistrates’ court, you would have had possession of the notes?”

Poolchan: “Correct.”

The judge then referred Poolchan to his documentary evidence given in the magistrates’ court in which he had stated that Amy’s injuries were in various stages of healing. Hosein then continued with his cross-examination of Poolchan, who said that the word “new” in the context of the injuries, was a relative term. However, the doctor said, the injuries appeared to have been inflicted within 24 hours of death. The trial continues today.