Distraught parents did not console each other when told daughter dead
Emergency room MD tells father’s trial she found reaction out of the ordinary
Both the mother of a young Calgary girl and the father accused of killing the child were crying and upset when she was pronounced dead, an emergency room physician said Tuesday.
But Dr. Jennifer Nichol said she observed one thing out of the ordinary as Oluwatosin and Itunu Oluwafemi mourned the death of their daughter, Rebekah.
“They seemed upset and distraught,” Nichol told defence lawyer Michael Bates, agreeing they were both crying and upset on being told the four-year-old had died.
“The one thing I did notice is they were not talking to each other,” Nichol said.
“I didn’t see them trying to console each other.”
Oluwatosin Oluwafemi is charged with second-degree murder in the Dec. 19, 2014, death of his daughter, who was rushed by paramedics from her parents’ Erin Woods home to the Peter Lougheed Centre that afternoon.
Nichol was one of two emergency room physicians who worked frantically with nursing staff to try to save the girl’s life when she arrived at the hospital in cardiac arrest.
Both she and Dr. Leigh Morris said CPR was conducted almost continually on the child, and defibrillation was attempted in the hopes of reviving her after she arrived at 4:09 p.m.
But by 4:43 p.m., they concluded their attempts at resuscitation were fruitless and Morris pronounced the girl dead.
It’s the Crown’s theory the child died of multiple blunt-force injuries inflicted on the girl as she was being cared for by her then-unemployed father.
In her opening address Monday, prosecutor Melissa Bond indicated expert evidence is expected to show Rebekah suffered significant injuries to her head, limbs, chest and back, and had a catastrophic injury to her cervical spine.
Nichol said because of the young age of the girl and the unexplained cause of her death, the medical examiner’s office was notified and investigated the case.
“We were under the working theory ... she died as a result of lack of oxygen, there were certainly other causes of death that we considered,” she told Bates.
“You didn’t have any reason to conclude there was trauma to the patient at that time?” Bates asked. “Yes,” Nichol agreed.
“You didn’t observe any injuries on her arms?” the lawyer suggested.
“No,” the doctor said.
“You didn’t observe any injuries on her legs?”
“No,” Nichol repeated. Meanwhile, a woman who worked with the mother said she heard screaming from the office where Itunu Oluwafemi was stationed that “paralyzed” staff.
“It seemed foreign, I wasn’t even sure if it was a person,” Carla Lestinho testified.
The woman emerged from the reception office with a phone to her ear.
“She was just in complete panic mode,” Lestinho said.
“She was just asking to leave to go and attend to her daughter.”
The trial continues Wednesday.