|
Expert: Sickle-cell Trait Likely Did Not Kill
Teen
A Top State Medical Officer Talks About the
Death of a Boy at a Florida Boot Camp
Andrea Fanta | The Associated Press
Posted February 24, 2006
TALLAHASSEE -- The sickle-cell trait did not likely
kill a 14-year-old who died last month after being kneed and struck by
guards in a Panama City boot camp, a top state medical official said
Thursday.
"It's very, very unlikely that anyone would have
real physical manifestations of a sickle-cell trait. The gene by itself
usually doesn't cause physical illness," Dr. Shairi Turner, the
Department of Juvenile Justice's chief medical officer, told lawmakers.
"I was surprised that is what they felt was his
cause of death. That was not something that was in my medical
understanding," said Turner, a pediatrician who has treated children
with sickle-cell trait. He testified before the House Criminal Justice
Appropriations Committee.
A security-camera videotape taken at the Bay County
boot camp Jan. 5 and released Friday showed 14-year-old Martin Lee
Anderson getting struck and kneed several times by guards during a
half-hour encounter. He died in a Pensacola hospital the next day.
Bay County's medical examiner, Dr. Charles F.
Siebert Jr., ruled last week that Martin died of hemorrhaging caused by
sickle-cell trait, a benign blood condition that affects about one in 12
black people.
But Siebert insisted that his findings were
accurate.
"If she would do some research on [sickle-cell
trait], there are numerous articles in numerous cases where sickle-cell
trait has caused death. This isn't an unheard-of thing. I'm not the
first person who has diagnosed it," he said.
Committee chairman Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami
Beach, expressed concern that Anderson's body was moved from a Pensacola
hospital back to Panama City for an autopsy. But the move is common when
law-enforcement personnel also need to see a body, said Dr. Stephen
Nelson, chairman of the state's Medical Examiners Commission.
Barreiro also criticized DJJ for not enforcing
uniform conduct codes in boot camps and expressed frustration that the
department would not say whether guards are allowed to strike detainees
to make them obey orders.
"If a youth becomes belligerent, combative,
difficult to handle, some techniques may be used -- such as a knee
strike, strike to the arm -- if the youth becomes unmanageable," Chris
Caballero, DJJ's chief of staff, told lawmakers. He did not answer
whether guards can strike detainees who don't threaten guards.
Barreiro said he will recommend a zero-tolerance
policy for striking in boot camps if he isn't satisfied with the policy
changes that DJJ recommends to Gov. Jeb Bush within the week.
Meanwhile, Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen
released a 33-page proposal for his "STAR Academy," a county-operated,
military-type residential school for male juvenile offenders. The
academy would replace the existing boot camp.
McKeithen notified the state Tuesday that the
county planned to end its contract to operate the boot camp for the
Department of Juvenile Justice.
|
