An autopsy done on little Shazade Simon at the mortuary of the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) has shown her cause of death to be from deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot).
The autopsy, which was performed on the toddler on Wednesday, stated that the death was unnatural but accidental.
She died at the SFGH on Monday, September 25th, six days after she suffered burns from a pot of lentil peas at her grandfather’s vending stall at Morne Roche, Williamsville.
The pathologist gave other causes as being due to right heart thrombo-embolism and 12 per cent mixed partial thickness burns on the total body surface area.
In a Newsday report, former SFGH Medical Director Dr Anand Chatoorgoon, who is also an anaesthetist and intensivist, said in his opinion, while it was very unusual for a child to develop deep vein thrombosis, the clot could have been caused by the burns to her leg.
“Once the clot forms, the clot moves and it would go into the heart and block the circulation, and the child would die suddenly, like what happened on Monday.
“Nobody would have seen this. Nobody would have expected this. If you get deep vein thrombosis on your legs, it can be picked up on normal examination.
“The fact that her leg was masked by bandages and burns means no doctor could have picked it up.”
The child’s grandfather, Wendell Lazar is calling for a full-scale investigation into her death as he believes the hospital was at fault.