June Alexander, the 10-year-old student who succumbed at a city hospital just days after she was seriously injured following an incident at the Regma Primary School in Linden, died as a result of blunt trauma to the head triggered by blood vessel malformation.
Commander of ‘E’ Division Linden Lord yesterday confirmed the findings of the autopsy, which was done on Monday by Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh.
Lord told Stabroek News that Singh opined that Alexander was born with blood vessel malformation and her condition worsened after she reportedly fell at the school.
According to the Mayo Clinic website, Blood vessel malformation, medically known as arteriovenous malformation (AVM), is an abnormal tangle of blood vessels connecting arteries and veins, which disrupts normal blood flow and oxygen circulation.
Lord said that although the matter is not being treated as a criminal case, a number of statements have since been obtained and the file will still be sent for legal advice. “We did our investigation and the file will be sent for legal advice but nothing criminal so far with the [post-mortem] result,” he said.
Alexander was rushed to the Mackenzie Hospital last Monday afternoon after she sustained serious head injuries during an incident at the school.
She succumbed to her injuries around 4.30 pm on Friday at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH).
Gail Annette Hamilton, the dead child’s aunt, had previously explained to Stabroek News that around 3 pm last Monday, a teacher from the school visited Alexander’s grandmother, Sandra Sumner, and informed her that the girl was admitted to the Mackenzie Hospital in an unconscious condition.
Upon hearing the news, Sumner immediately contacted Alexander’s mother, Angela Hamilton, and they rushed to the hospital.
“The doctors say they didn’t able with her and she has to go to town and scan her head,” Annette had explained, while noting that the child was on life support since her admission to the Mackenzie Hospital.
Alexander was later transferred to the GPH, where she was admitted until her demise.
Hamilton had further explained that the following day she had to go to the school to deal with a complaint that her daughter had made to her about someone from the school hitting her with a piece of wood in her back.
While at the school, she related to the officials that she was Alexander’s aunt and enquired whether they knew what happened to her.
“They said she was running on the corridor and her laces tangled and she slipped on sand and knocked her head. I said okay and this is the report we told the doctor [at GPH] about what happened. They did the CT scan and the doctor said it wasn’t from falling like that and it was more severe. He even called the police and told them it wasn’t a fall,” Hamilton recalled.
She disclosed that when the police visited the school to do their investigation, they were told conflicting reports.
“One person said the child was skipping and fell on the concrete and that’s what the police told us. The doctor even called the mother and asked the mother if she [her daughter] had problem with anyone at the school because it seems like if the child was beaten and fell from a height,” she added.
The tests from the CT scan showed that Alexander was bleeding in her brain.
