TALLAHASSEE · A teen likely died because he was suffocated
while guards punched and kicked him at a Panama City boot
camp and he probably was brain dead when he was brought to a
hospital, a noted pathologist told legislators Friday.
Dr. Michael Baden spoke after observing the second
autopsy performed on Martin Lee Anderson, 14. He and the
boy's family have disputed the original autopsy by a medical
examiner who said the boy suffered a natural death from
complications of sickle cell trait, a usually benign blood
disorder many blacks have.
But the medical examiner, Dr. Charles Siebert, again said
Friday that he stood by his findings. Siebert also witnessed
the second autopsy and said he saw nothing there to change
his mind. He said in an interview that he would review his
findings when the results of the second autopsy are
released.
Baden is working for Anderson's family. Tampa-area
prosecutors investigating the death have confirmed Baden's
assertion that the boy didn't die of natural causes, but
they have declined to comment further because of the pending
probe.
Baden gave the House Criminal Justice Appropriations
Committee more details about his opinions of the videotaped
altercation, which has prompted calls to close juvenile boot
camps. Anderson had collapsed while doing exercises at the
camp and was unresponsive as guards hit him.
"There was somebody pressing on his back while he was on
the ground. That prevents the diaphragm from moving and that
can cause asphyxia, the lack of breathing," Baden told the
panel from New York by telephone.
"He can't breathe, he can't get oxygen. When he leaves on
that stretcher, he's already mostly brain dead," he said.
But Siebert, the medical examiner for a Florida Panhandle
district that includes Panama City, reiterated his findings
that exercise triggered the sickle cell trait, which led to
severe internal bleeding.
He told The Associated Press in a phone interview there
was no clinical or physical evidence of pressure on the body
or compression to the chest that could have caused the kind
of asphyxiation Baden described. Anderson instead suffered
from cellular asphyxiation when his blood cells assumed a
sickle shape, clogging his arteries, he said.
"His cells were not able to get the oxygen they needed,"
Siebert said.
Baden said guards could be seen holding a hand over the
boy's mouth.
"They did that, according to their report, so that he
could inhale the ammonia that they were forcing up his nose"
to revive him, Baden said.
He said hospital reports showed that an emergency room
monitor indicated severe brain damage when the boy arrived.
Hospital tests showed Anderson's blood cells were not
sickle shaped when he was admitted, Baden said. Cells of
people with the trait, however, can assume that shape after
they are dead or while they are dying, he said.
