Initial autopsy finds no cause in girl’s death

Discussion

August 24, 2010

By Jeff Lehr Globe Staff Writer The Joplin Globe Tue Aug 24, 2010, 12:08 AM CDT

WYANDOTTE, Okla. — The state medical examiner has yet to determine the cause of death for a 9-year-old girl who collapsed last week during recess on a school playground in Wyandotte.

Personnel at the medical examiner’s office in Tulsa conducted an autopsy Friday on the body of Alyssa Avila and could not find any overt signs of trauma, according to the Wyandotte Nation Tribal Police.

The state medical examiner is currently classifying the girl’s cause of death as “undetermined,” police said in a news release. But more extensive testing will be conducted.

The fourth-grade student was playing with other children about 2 p.m. Thursday on a playground at Wyandotte Elementary School when she collapsed. She was taken by ambulance to Integris Baptist Regional Health Center in Miami, where she was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m.

The girl was playing on a new apparatus similar to a teeter-totter called the X-Wave. School officials and police believe she fell off the equipment but got back up and did not appear to have been injured. They think she may have suffered some sort of blow to the head as she tried to get back on, or when she fell off a second time.

Police have acknowledged some confusion in accounts obtained from other children regarding what took place.

Overt signs of trauma might normally be expected to be discovered by an autopsy in cases of a fatal blow to the head or a cervical spine injury, police said. But two doctors in the state medical examiner’s office conducted independent examinations of the body and were unable to find any signs of trauma.

Police said the findings do not rule out the possibility of a head injury. Nor do they confirm the existence of any underlying medical condition, police said. They said the state medical examiner’s office is conducting more extensive tests to determine the cause of death. Obtaining results from those tests could take several weeks, police said

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Discussion

Initial autopsy finds no cause in girl’s death

Eliminating the state income tax and increasing sales tax was debated during a press day on Thursday at the Missouri Capitol. Do you favor that proposal?

Eliminating the state income tax and increasing sales tax was debated during a press day on Thursday at the Missouri Capitol. Do you favor that proposal?

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