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By- DR. Lester Simon
1. The following is a second attempt to outline the Coroner Case procedure in Antigua and Barbuda, which is similar to what obtains elsewhere in other Commonwealth countries.
2. This attempt does not refer to any singular case current or past in the country. This attempt is to try to demystify the Coroner case process. Nothing more.
3. Kindly find below a reprint of a related article written in 2023 on Facebook. To add to the reprint below I will expand on point # 16 in the previous article, which refers to autopsy findings.
4. When the autopsy findings are not clear enough to allow the pathologist to write a definitive cause of death, “Undetermined” can be written on the death certificate.
5. It does not mean that the case is over and done with. Quite the contrary. It signals the continuation of a series of all types of investigations and tests on a large number of tissue samples harvested from the body, as well as those from elsewhere.
6. With nothing else to be gained from the physical body, the death certificate, with or without an undetermined cause of death, allows for the burial of the body.
7. When additional information becomes available, the undetermined cause of death will be amended to record and register the determined cause of death, allowing the beginning, the beginning, of the final closure of the case.
29 November 2023.
Death and the Maiden
1. Death is a medical as well as a legal construct.
2. Only a medical doctor can certify death and write a death certificate but only a magistrate can issue a warrant for burial.
3. All unnatural or unusual deaths fall under the ambit of the coroner. It is reasonably argued by some that every single death, including those that are not unnatural or not unusual, every single, solitary death, is a coroner case.
4. The coroner is a magistrate. All roads to and from the coroner are travelled via the police. All.
5. Coroner cases may or may not be subjected to autopsy. The autopsy decision is based
on the coroner, with due regard to official and unofficial information.
6. For the purpose of autopsy, several requirements must be met. These include a relevant clinical summary by the doctor who looked after the patient before death, or which doctor was responsible for the care of the patient.
7. This clinical summary must be given to the coroner via the police. It should not be given to anyone else. The doctor who provides the clinical summary should not give the said summary directly to the doctor doing the autopsy. It has to go from the clinical doctor to the police, from the police to the coroner, back to the police, and finally to the autopsy doctor.
8. The public’s right to know must be balanced always against the sanctify of and respect for the dead and the unquenchable grief of the family and friends of the dead.
9. Even if the grieving relatives and friends run and fly in the air to the media to air their sorrow and concerns, clamoring and pleading for information, the media must act responsibly so as not to inflame the public or to worsen the very grief the family is trying so hard to endure and expunge. Or both. It is a very fragile family moment. Death speaks to tell us who we are.
10. How then can anyone, family, media, or public, get information regarding coroner cases?
11. The coroner may decide to hold an inquest ( a preliminary inquiry) to determine the circumstances surrounding the death. Such an inquest may or may not be an open court; and jurors may or may not be summoned.
12. The media, the public, and the family should be apprised of how the coroner system works.
13. The police officer in charge of the coroner case and other police officers gather all the relevant information about the case by way of detailed investigation and documentation. This takes time. The family should be kept informed as time goes by.
14. The relatives are told that if an autopsy will be done, it will be done by the pathologist who reports to the coroner (via the police). It is also noted that the family has the prerogative to have their own independent pathologist or independent medical doctor present at the autopsy.
15. Before the autopsy, there may be a need for X-rays. During the autopsy, all sorts of samples can be taken, documented and stored for testing, with the appropriate chain of custody.
16. The autopsy findings are usually clear, with few exceptions, so the areas of contention or concern for the relatives are almost always related to matters outside the actual autopsy findings. Hence a knowledgable and experienced lawyer for the family of the dead is often a good, sensible, and natural recourse.
17. There are many things wrong in Antigua and Barbuda. Some would say too many. But in our honest attempt to fix the wrongs, we should not allow our fixation on personalities ( justifiable or not) to erode and eradicate the fundamental principles, good practices, and technical procedures that are required to achieve the very end we seek.
18. It’s called shooting ourselves in the collective head. Bang! We are all dead.
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Who wrote this!!!??? This is babble!!
I’m an MD shaking her head… get better pathologists in here to do the job!! I’ve done autopsies and wondering who all can perform one in this inquest!? Can i call in friends from other countries??
Because it’s RIDICULOUS for this man to not have found a COD by now!! All this time!!??
Chupz SMH!!!
Grateful for your explanation Dr. Simon. With such high interest in this case, an explanation like this to the public, preferably at a news conference would have gone a long way in assuring and satisfying an anxious, tense and impatient public that the matter is still ongoing. It’s the lack of knowledge and clarity that makes everyone fidgety and nervous about the whole situation. As you have so beautifully done, this assurance could have been given via a news conference by the police.
thank you. thought i was losing my sanity.
sounds like a bandaid. how many cases of inconclusive undetermined cause of death in Antigua have had a different result after the burial?
If you’re a MD you lacks comprehension skills. The author of the article is spot on in-regard’s an inquest. The result was inconclusive and only a pathologist can confirm the cause of death. Common.Why?How do you get your degree?
Lol at WHOEVER is “Gaston Browne” today!! 😆
And Mr Philip must not realize how much of a JOKE this news post is. 😳 😆 🤣
Well well ah wah yah tarl. During the covid 19 pandemic covid was blame for every death not only in Antigua but world wide. No autopsy, no coroner bullshit…just a simple swab to the nose and covid 19 was the cause of death…story done. Even when hit by a motor car or having your head remove from your body once you tested positive for covid 19 that was the cause of death. The medical fraternity was threaten by the political directorate that their license would be revoke if they go along with this narrative, the doctors dare not issued sick leave for anything else other than covid. The populace was told take the vaccine or stay home. TALK ABOUT LEGALIZE HIGH CRIMES
(My 3rd attempt)
This whole Investigation is going from bad to worse daily, and stinks to high heaven!!! Why???a few weeks ago we were told that an autopsy had been conducted. The father of the deceased publicly aired some rambling nonsense no doubt handed to him by the authorities. Absolute silence about this publicly announced followed. In his muttering, the father claimed that there were no signs of mutilation visible on the body. Excuse me??? A body that had just undergone an autopsy bore no signs of mutilation. How could this layman distinguish between incisions made during an autopsy and those that might have been made for other purposes by some other person(s). The only odd sign he noted was “sunburn” on her skin!!!! Nothing from the authorities fir days. Stone cold silence. And then a flurry of activity. Well – attended candle light vigil (attendees and general public appear pleased AND appeased). Then the nation lays to rest a highly trained female poli ce officer – a death ruled a suicide, an officer highly trained in the field of forensics whose skills might have been contributing or contributed to the preliminary investigation of the Chantel Crump abduction and murder case, gone. Dead men or women tell no tales. Next came the announcement of the date for Chantel Crumps funeral, and now this latest Installment. AUTOPSY INCONCLUSIVE. Well,well well. This poor.child of ignoble birth, just another child from the ghetto will be buried along with the files of all those guilty of her murder as well as those allegedly responsible for covering it up. The pretty, littl senorita will be freed on the basis of mental illness and probably institutionalized for a year or two. The sailorman who has mot been charged to date and probably never will. CASE CLOSED.
KARMA, however, IS REAL!!!!
For the record, a highly respected external forensic pathologist handled this case and operated and reported by all standard international procedures and protocols.
Kindly stop ransacking the mind of the members of the family.
@ drop the mic
If you are really a MD and have done autopsies, you should know better.
It is foolish statement like yours that lead to more public misinformation.