SPD, hospital reports differ on slain Marine’s fatal wound

MANILA, Philippines -  United States Marine George Anikow died from a stab wound in the neck, which he allegedly sustained during a brawl with four men near the Rockwell Center in Makati City on Nov. 24, 2012, the Southern Police District’s (SPD) chief medico-legal officer testified in court yesterday.

A defense lawyer, however, presented a report by the Makati Medical Center (MMC), where Anikow was brought for treatment after the brawl, showing there were no wounds in Anikow’s neck.

Dr. Voltaire Nulud, testifying at continuation of the bail petition hearing at the courtroom of Regional Trial Court Branch 59 Judge Winlove Dumayas, said the cause of Anikow’s death was a “lacerated left carotid artery.”

It was Nulud who autopsied Anikow’s body at the morgue of the Rizal Funeral Parlor in Pasay City.

Nulud, under questioning from Assistant City Prosecutor Hannah Arriola, told the court that a person who had sustained such a wound would die in 10 minutes if left unattended.

“There would be severe blood loss and it will be followed by hemorrhagic shock as the brain will be deprived of blood,” he said.

No wound?

Nulud, however, could not explain, when asked by defense lawyers, why an examination conducted by the MMC did not mention the supposedly fatal neck wound.

“We requested for the clinical abstract but up to now, we have not received it,” he said.

Defense lawyer Teodoro Jumamil, representing Crispin dela Paz, then showed Nulud an anatomical sketch from the hospital signed by a certain Dr. Anastacio. “There is no injury on the neck,” Jumamil said.

Nulud told the court that it was his first time to have seen the sketch from the MMC.

Jumamil then asked Nulud if it would be impossible for a man who has his carotid artery slashed to survive beyond 10 minutes. Nulud said yes.

Jumamil then asked Nulud how come doctors at the MMC pronounced Anikow dead at 7:20 a.m. on Nov. 24.

“If the injury was unattended, it (injury) would have been irreversible at five to 10 minutes,” Nulud said.

Jumamil said Rommel Saavedra, a security guard at the Rockwell Center, said in his testimony that Anikow was left unattended on the ground for at least 45 minutes.

Jumamil then asked Nulud if the fatal stab wound on Anikow’s neck could have been inflicted elsewhere away from the place where the brawl took place. However, just before Nulud could answer, Arriola raised an objection and Dumayas upheld it.

Alleged lapses

Meanwhile, defense lawyers pointed to alleged lapses in the way Nulud conducted the autopsy on Anikow.

Lawyer Nestor Ifurong, who represents accused Galicano Datu, questioned why Nulud did not state in his report all the examinations he had performed on Anikow.

Nulud answered that it is not the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) process. “We did a complete autopsy and we only state the remarkable findings,” he said.

Defense lawyers also quizzed Nulud on why no blood-alcohol test was done on Anikow to determine if he was indeed drunk during the brawl, as Saavedra testified. Nulud said Anikow tested negative for alcohol when fluid from his stomach was examined.

Nulud told the court that he asked for a blood-alcohol test but was told by the PNP Crime Laboratory’s pathology department chief to instead just collect fluid from Anikow’s stomach, saying that the blood had already clotted.

Nulud however agreed with the defense lawyers that a blood-alcohol test is a more effective method in determining the alcohol level in the blood.

Nulud said it is possible that alcohol in Anikow’s blood was removed as part of hospital procedure when he was rushed to the MMC.