By: Emmanuel Jipoh
The mother of the late Princess Cooper, Ma Fatu O. Flower, is calling on government to release the corpse of her daughter for burial so that she may rest in peace.
Madam Flower in tears told The New Dawn that she is restless since her daughter was mysteriously found dead, lying in a pool of blood in March inside the premises of the AWAZ Building Material Store in Paynesville.
The mysterious death was greeted by series of protests from local groups here, demanding justice from the State.
An autopsy conducted by the Government of Liberia (GOL) through the Ministry of Justice attributes the death of the late Princess to tuberculosis, ruling out foul play.
Government pathologist Dr. Benedict Kolee, releasing the autopsy result in May, said Princess died of hemorrhagic shock, which is a type of hypovolemic shock as a result of intravascular blood loss and consequent alterations of cells due to hypoxia that causes tissue and organ dysfunction, leading to death, once a certain threshold level is exceeded.
The autopsy report by Dr. Kolee and his colleague Dr. Zoebon B. Kpadeh, further notes that other causes of death include massive hemorrhage from ruptured rasmussen aneurysm and erosion of bronchial vessels and progressive secondary pulmonary tuberculosis.
The report said massive hemoptysis arising from Rmrasmussen’s aneurysm, is a potentially life-threatening condition involving bleeding from the pulmonary or bronchial vasculature which is usually due to higher pressure of the bronchial system, adding that in cases where bronchial artery embolization has not yet been performed, mortality approaches 70 percent.
“In our professional and expert opinion, the manner of death is NATURAL,” the pathologists wrote.
However, the family of the deceased challenged the autopsy report released by the government, clarifying that their late daughter had no history of TB.
President George Manneh Weah then asked the family to search for an independent pathology that would conduct an independent, fair and transparent second autopsy on the body.
But since then, the family has failed to present a pathologist of their choice and instead, asked the Government of Liberia to release the body of their daughter for burial.
The family has said in a recent news conference that they believe there’s injustice and unfairness in the path to justice in Liberia, as they no longer wish for a second autopsy to be conducted, but to have the corpse of their daughter for burial so that she may rest in peace and the tears of the family will dry.
“We can say that there is no path for justice in Liberia. With what we have gone through, we can now confirm this road to obtaining justice [will] be a rocky path. Therefore, we the family have seen this as a fruitless journey, ” family spokesperson Dr. Abel Momo had earlier told journalists in Monrovia,
But the Ministry of Information has insisted on the need to conduct a second autopsy which was initially requested by the family in order to clear all allegations and claims that have circulated over the period of time about the cause of Princess’ death.https://thenewdawnliberia.com/government-rejects-princess-coopers-familys-request/
