(TRINIDAD) A procedure designed to shed light on the death of a Pleasantville teenager has instead prompted additional questions.
Khadeeja Taylor, 22, died last Thursday early after suffering from demonic possession for two weeks, according to her mother.
According to the mother’s documents, she died of hypovolaemic shock (induced by substantial blood loss), an upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage (bleeding caused by ulcers), and a mental psychological condition. This is based on an autopsy performed on Friday at the San Fernando General Hospital.
A senior police source, however, questioned how a pathologist could find a psychological cause of death from a physical examination and why it would be put on the certificate.
A physician with hospital expertise told Newsday that a psychiatric issue is a “diagnosis of exclusion,” which would have been given in the absence of any physical explanations for the behaviour in the autopsy, such as anomalies in the brain, such as a cancer.
However, the source stated that it was unusual for the psychiatric diagnosis to be listed on the death certificate of someone who had never been diagnosed with it.
Taylor died on Thursday morning at the Siparia Health Facility, after she and her mother, Jennifer Sandy-Thomas, had spent nearly a week with a Siparia spiritual healer who was treating her for a demonic possession they claimed was put on her by someone with ill intent.
Sandy-Thomas later told the magazine that her daughter had demonstrated strange behaviour. Attacking family, tearing her hair out, pretending to be the devil while speaking in unrecognisable languages, slamming her skull on the ground, and cursing relatives were all part of it.
Sandy-Thomas told Newsday on Thursday that she believed there was no medical diagnosis that could explain the behaviour she witnessed, particularly from her daughter, who she claimed had never behaved in that manner before.
“I can’t imagine someone passing by a stranger and saying, ‘I want to do this child that because I’m jealous and I want her brain and I want her looks.'”
“It’s almost as if they sacrificed my child.”
“It’s happening. And don’t tell me it’s not happening or that it’s medical. Not everything is medical.
“Nothing can simply be written away: ‘Oh, it’s this, it’s that.’ “It’s spiritual: people going by evil people to do evil things to people,” she explained.
According to a police source, the postmortem results revealed no evidence of murder.
However, they stated that a thorough investigation would be conducted to see whether any blame could be ascribed for Taylor’s death.
