British Coroner Will Decide Whether Kelly 'Suicide' Will
See Inquest
From Rowena Thursby <rowenathursby@onetel.net.uk>
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/coronerdecideskellyinquest07mar04.shtml
March 7, 2004
No Jury?
If coroner NicholasGardiner decides on 16th March that the submissions he
has "selected" do not constitute a reason to resume a full inquest,
then the ruling will be "suicide". He has not selected the detailed
eleven-page submission of the Kelly Investigation Group. The Hutton Inquiry
did not call a jury, subpoena witnesses, or hear statements on oath. A full
inquest would enable this process. Do you want the truth to be buried with
Dr Kelly? Or will you write to the press and/or the coroner this week, as
Andrew Waldie has done? (See below.) If you wish, send me a copy of your
letter and I'll make sure it's visible.
The Government's manipulation of the way intelligence was presented in its
dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction is not the only matter that
was glossed over by the Hutton Inquiry. With his conclusion that Dr.Kelly
committed suicide, Lord Hutton also appears to have whitewashed the science
of human physiology.
Members of the medical community hold the view that it is highly improbable
that Dr.Kelly bled to death from a self-inflicted wound to his left wrist.
The depth of public disquiet about this is illustrated by the action of
three medical specialists who wrote in January to a national newspaper to
dispute the conclusions as to cause of death which Dr.Nicholas Hunt, Home
Office forensic pathologist, presented at the Inquiry.
The Oxfordshire Coroner, Mr.Nicholas Gardiner, is due to hold a hearing
on the death of Dr.Kelly on 16th March. Unlike Lord Hutton, he will be able
to exercise the instruments of subpoena, sworn testimony, and rigorous cross-examination
to uncover the truth about David Kelly's death. Let us hope that he will
use them.
DRAW FROM THESE 3 LETTERS THE KELLY INVESTIGATION GROUP HAD
PUBLISHED IN THE GUARDIAN.....
Published in The Guardian on 27 January:
OUR DOUBTS ABOUT DR KELLY'S SUICIDE
As medical professionals, a trauma & orthopaedic surgeon,
a specialist anaesthesiologist, and a diagnostic radiologist, we do not
consider evidence given at the Hutton Inquiry has demonstrated that Dr David
Kelly committed suicide.
Dr Nicholas Hunt, the forensic pathologist who appeared at
the Hutton Inquiry, concluded that Dr Kelly bled to death from a self-inflicted
wound in his left wrist. We view this as highly improbable. Arteries in
the wrist are of matchstick thickness and severing them does not lead to
life-threatening blood loss. Dr Hunt stated that the only artery that had
been cut - the ulnar artery - had been completely transected. Complete transection
causes the artery to quickly retract and close down, and this promotes clotting
of the blood:
"When an artery is completely divided, the highly elastic
quality of its wall causes it to retract into the tissues, thereby diminishing
the calibre of the vessel and promoting clotting."
A Textbook of Surgery by Christopher, Fourth Edition, 1945,
p210
The ambulance team reported that the quantity of blood at
the scene was surprisingly small. It is extremely difficult to lose significant
amounts of blood at a pressure below 50-60 systolic in a subject who is
compensating by vasoconstricting. To have died from haemorrhage, Dr Kelly
would have had to lose about 5 pints of blood; in our view it is unlikely
that he would have lost more than a pint.
Alexander Allan, the toxicologist testifying at the inquiry,
considered the amount of co-proxamol ingested insufficient to cause death.
Allan could not show that Dr Kelly had ingested the 29 tablets said to be
missing from the packets found. Only a fifth of one tablet was found in
his stomach. Although levels of co-proxamol in the blood were higher than
therapeutic levels, Allan conceded that the blood level of each of the drug’s
two components was less than a third of what would normally be found in
a fatal overdose.
We dispute that Dr Kelly could have died either from haemorrhage
or from co-proxamol ingestion or from both. The coroner, Nicholas Gardiner,
has spoken recently of resuming the inquest into his death. If it does re-open,
a clear need exists to scrutinise more closely Dr Hunt’s conclusions
as to the cause of death.
Yours sincerely
David Halpin, MB BS FRCS
Specialist in trauma & orthopaedic surgery
Dr C Stephen Frost, BSc, MB ChB
Specialist in diagnostic radiology (Stockholm, Sweden)
Dr Searle Sennett, BSc, MBChB, FFARCS
Specialist in Anaesthesiology
Letters
Medical evidence does not support suicide
by Kelly
Thursday February 12, 2004
The Guardian
Since three of us wrote our letter to the Guardian on January
27, questioning whether Dr Kelly's death was suicide, we have received professional
support for our view from vascular surgeon Martin Birnstingl, pathologist
Dr Peter Fletcher, and consultant in public health Dr Andrew Rouse. We all
agree that it is highly improbable that the primary cause of Dr Kelly's
death was haemorrhage from transection of a single ulnar artery, as stated
by Brian Hutton in his report.
On February 10, Dr Rouse wrote to the BMJ explaining that
he and his colleague, Yaser Adi, had spent 100 hours preparing a report,
Hutton, Kelly and the Missing Epidemiology. They concluded that "the
identified evidence does not support the view that wrist-slash deaths are
common (or indeed possible)". While Professor Chris Milroy, in a letter
to the BMJ, responded, "unlikely does not make it impossible",
Dr Rouse replied: "Before most of us will be prepared to accept wristslashing
... as a satisfactory and credible explanation for a death, we will also
require evidence that such aetiologies are likely; not merely 'possible'.
"
Our criticism of the Hutton report is that its verdict of
"suicide" is an inappropriate finding. To bleed to death from
a transected artery goes against classical medical teaching, which is that
a transected artery retracts, narrows, clots and stops bleeding within minutes.
Even if a person continues to bleed, the body compensates for the loss of
blood through vasoconstriction (closing down of non-essential arteries).
This allows a partially exsanguinated individual to live for many hours,
even days.
Professor Milroy expands on the finding of Dr Nicholas Hunt,
the forensic pathologist at the Hutton inquiry - that haemorrhage was the
main cause of death (possibly finding it inadequate) - and falls back on
the toxicology: "The toxicology showed a significant overdose of co-proxamol.
The standard text, Baselt, records deaths with concentrations at 1 mg/l,
the concentration found in Kelly." But Dr Allan, the toxicogist in
the case, considered this nowhere near toxic. Each of the two components
was a third of what is normally considered a fatal level. Professor Milroy
then talks of "ischaemic heart disease". But Dr Hunt is explicit
that Dr Kelly did not suffer a heart attack. Thus, one must assume that
no changes attributable to myocardial ischaemia were actually found at autopsy.
We believe the verdict given is in contradiction to medical
teaching; is at variance with documented cases of wrist-slash suicides;
and does not align itself with the evidence presented at the inquiry. We
call for the reopening of the inquest by the coroner, where a jury may be
called and evidence taken on oath.
Andrew Rouse
Public health consultant
Searle Sennett
Specialist in anaesthesiology
David Halpin
Specialist in trauma
Stephen Frost
Specialist in radiology
Dr Peter Fletcher
Specialist in pathology
Martin Birnstingl
Specialist in vascular surgery
IN THE GUARDIAN:
Questions still unanswered over Dr Kelly's death
Thursday February 19, 2004
The Guardian
Professor Christopher Milroy refers three times (Letters,
February 14) to "wrists". While slitting all four wrist arteries
(two in each wrist) and then sitting in a warm bath may allow a person to
commit suicide, Dr Kelly had only one completely severed artery and no warm
bath.
The dose of Coproxamol was an overdose over therapeutic levels but not,
by a factor of three, a lethal dose. If Dr Kelly did take 29 tablets, why
were the contents of his stomach consistent with only one-fifth of a tablet?
If the suggestion is that Dr Kelly vomited, then where is the vomit analysis
that shows this? No analysis was presented to Hutton. Clearly, also, if
the stomach contents were vomited up, this would reduce the amount of the
drug in Dr Kelly's body.
The arguments discussed by Professor Milroy are only a small
part of the picture. There is considerable circumstantial evidence surrounding
the disappearance, death, and discovery of Dr Kelly that also raise suspicions.
I have written a detailed letter to Nicholas Gardiner (the Oxfordshire coroner)
outlining my concerns over this.
Garrett Cooke
Sandhurst, Berks
The fact that Dr Kelly's ulnar artery was completely severed
makes it even less likely that bleeding would have been sufficient to cause
his death, as a small, completely severed, wrist artery quickly retracts
and narrows, promoting blood-clotting. The scratches to the wrist Professor
Milroy refers to neither support suicide nor refute the possibility of murder
made to look like suicide.
We did not ignore "the toxic dose" of Coproxamol
(Letters, February 12): we referred to the toxicologist's statement that
the amount of each drug component found in the blood was a third of what
is normally considered fatal. As for "ischaemic heart disease",
while Dr Hunt, in his report to the Hutton inquiry, noted some hardening
of the arteries - common in men of Dr Kelly's age - he stated he could not
find evidence of a heart attack.
At the Hutton inquiry, crucial pieces of forensic evidence
were missing: it is not clear whether or not a full battery of tests was
done on the lungs, the blood, the heart and the soil. Dr Hunt's report,
for instance, did not provide information on an estimated residual blood
volume. If Dr Kelly lost significantly less than five pints of blood, then
haemorrhage could not have been the cause of death.
If people are to be convinced beyond reasonable doubt that
Dr Kelly did die in the manner described to Hutton, a full set of test results
should be produced - preferably at a full inquest where a jury is called,
witnesses subpoenaed and evidence given on oath.
Dr Andrew Rouse
And five other medical specialists
RowenaThursby@onetel.net.uk
Wrist-slashing suicide is so rare that the Office of National
Statistics does not report it as a specific cause of death; it is subsumed
into "suicide and self-inflicted injury by cutting and piercing instruments";
there are about five male cases a year. All Professor Milroy has to do is
to produce a single actual example, to show that even the very unusual does
happen from time to time.
Chris Squire
Twickenham, Middx
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