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Stabroek News

No sign of life - doctor
published: Saturday | October 20, 2007

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

DR. ASHER Cooper, the physician who attended to Bob Woolmer at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel on March 18, said the late Pakistan cricket coach was already dead by the time he got to him.

Dr. Cooper was one of six persons who testified on the fourth day of the coroner's inquest into Woolmer's death, at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston.

Cross-examined by prosecutor Dirk Harrison, Dr. Cooper said he made several attempts to revive the Englishman.

checked for signs

"After moving the body to the corridor of the bedroom I administered CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and checked for signs of life, but a central pulse was absent. I thought then that the patient was now dead," Dr. Cooper related.

Dr. Cooper said he travelled in an ambulance with Woolmer's body to the University Hospital of the West Indies. Dr. Simone French, a consultant in the hospital's Accident and Emergency Department, testified that the former England Test player was pronounced dead shortly after his 12:10 p.m. arrival.

A member of the Cricket World Cup's local medical team, Dr. Cooper said he got a call from the Jamaica Pegasus that a guest at the hotel had collapsed. He reached Woolmer's room at approximately 11:10 a.m. and proceeded to the bathroom where he found the coach's nude body on its back.

He said Woolmer's trunk and head were blue, a sign of central synosis, meaning he had not been breathing for some time. He added that Woolmer's body was cold, and his tongue swollen and dry which meant he was dehydrated.

Dr. French said sections of Woolmer's body had a bluish-purplish colour when it arrived at the hospital. Staff there immediately placed him on the cardiac monitor.

pronounced dead

"Having determined that there was no heart activity or a palpable pulse he was pronounced dead," Dr. French said.

Woolmer was pronounced dead hours after Pakistan, one of the favourites for the World Cup, were eliminated by outsiders Ireland at Sabina Park.

An initial report by government pathologist Dr. Ere Seshiah said Woolmer died from asphyxia resulting from manual strangulation. A second autopsy in London by Dr. Nathaniel Cary of the Metropolitan Police, listed heart failure as the cause of death.

Constable Daric Walker of the Mona police, Sergeant Winston Lawrence of the Half-Way Tree police, Detective Inspector Victor Mendes of the Special Crime Unit and his colleague Detective Constable Dennis Forbes, also testified.

The inquest continues on Monday.

"Having determined that there was no heart activity or a palpable pulse he was pronounced dead," Dr. French said.

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