Teoh alive when he hit ground, inquest told


SHAH ALAM: An Indian pathologist who had carried out the autopsy on Teoh Beng Hock together with a government pathologist from a hospital in Klang, today told the coroner's court that the DAP political aide was still alive when he hit the 5th-floor landing of Plaza Masalam here.

Dr Prashant Naresh Samberkar (pic), a forensic lecturer who has performed over 3,000 autopsies to date and is currently based at the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) near here, said his assessment was based on the injuries sustained by Teoh.

“The first point is that injuries sustained by the deceased are consistent with a fall from height,” he replied to a question from the lead lawyer from the Attorney General's Chambers helping the coroner in the inquest, Tan Hock Chuan.

“Secondly, the amount of soft tissue injury, the amount of bruising and the amount of soft tissue haemorrhaging that occurred can occur only if the victim was alive at the time of impact.

“The third point is 700 millilitres of blood and blood clot was found in the left chest cavity and 100 millilitres of blood was found in the right chest cavity. This amount of bleeding in the chest cavity can only occur if the person is alive at the time of impact,” he added.

“No. 4, the injury to the skull, especially the condition of the blood clot on the vortex of the skull, around the top of the head, is again consistent with a person being alive at the time of impact.

“No. 5, the subarachnoid haemorrhage on the right side of the brain surface can only occur when the person is alive at the time of impact,” Dr Prashant concluded.

MI
18/08/09

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