Dr. Abdoulie Alieu Ceesay, a medical doctor attached to the Accident & Emergency Unit (AEU) of the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH) and senior registrar at the RVTH Mortuary; and Malang Manneh, a police photographer attached to the Criminal Records Unit of the Major Crime Unit in Banjul, who is now deployed to Soma Police Station in the Lower River Region, Monday, August 30th, gave their evidence in the ongoing murder case filed in against Mayombe Samuel Joel, a Cameroonian.

The Cameroonian is facing a one-count charge of murder contrary to the Laws of The Gambia. He was alleged to have on the 25th of February 2008, caused the death of one Therese Opus Wodijia, a Ghanaian national. The first to give evidence yesterday before Justice Emmanuel Amadi at the High Court in Banjul was the police photographer, Malang Manneh, who informed the court that while he was a photographer at the Major Crime Unit in Banjul, he could recall the day he was assigned by his boss, one Superintendent Amie Nyassi, to attend a post-mortem at the RVTH, conducted on a deceased person by the name Therese.

"I took shots of the post-mortem, printed them at a photo lab in Banjul. I placed both the negative and the main photos in the same envelop, put the envelop in a case file and took them to the Major Crime Office," the police photographer explained to the court. The said photographs were later tendered and marked as exhibits P A, B, C, D and E.

The defence counsel, Kebba Sanyang opted not to cross-examine the witness, and Dr. Ceesay stepped into the witness box, and gave a detailed explanation about his duties as a medical practitioner and a senior registrar at the mortuary and his conducting of post-mortem on the said deceased on the 25th of February 2008, the report he made and the subsequent issuing of a death certificate to that end.

Dr Ceesay, who said he resides in Fajara M. Section informed the court that post-mortem is normally conducted basically to determine the cause of death. Dr. Ceesay then explained that on the said day, 25th of February 2008, he conducted a post-mortem on a deceased person called Therese and the report revealed that the death was caused by respiratory embarrassment. Dr. Ceesay at that juncture identified the said post-mortem report, which he said bears his signature. The report was later tendered and marked as exhibit P4

Different types of respiratory embarrassment

The medical doctor told the court that there are two types of respiratory embarrassment; namely active and passive respiratory. These two, he explained, are facilitated by cervical nerves and the cervical nerve is elevated in the diaphrama and the centre of the diaphrama is called Centrum. Dr. Ceesay added that diaphrama is a muscle between the chest and the abdomen cavity. "The diaphrama has nerves from the neck downwards. When the diaphrama opens, the air goes inside and when it contrasts, the air goes out. Whenever the neck is broken, the nerves do not open the diaphrama and as such breathing embarrassment will occur," he explained to the court.

Cross-examination

Responding to cross-examination from Kebba Sanyang, counsel for the accused, Dr. Ceesay maintained that he performed a post-mortem on the deceased and that its report revealed that the deceased died of respiratory embarrassment.

The breakdown of haematarma

According to Dr. Ceesay, the term haematarma is a compound word comprising both Greek and Latin. He then went on to explain that haemo is a Greek word, which means blood, whilst tarma is a Latin word, which means stand. Dr. Ceesay further hinted that haemotarma is mainly caused by beating - an external impact.

He denied knowledge as to whether sickness can cause haemotarma, but he accepted that there are two types of circulation, big and small circulation. Dr. Ceesay also denied allegation that cardial arrest and respiratory embarrassment have relationship. He explained that the two are like day and night, meaning they have no relationship. He further denied suggestions that asthma can cause respiratory arrest. The case was adjourned to the 13th of October for continuation.