3-month-old Regina baby died from 'blunt force trauma' to head, autopsy report says
3-month-old Regina baby died from 'blunt force trauma' to head, autopsy report says
A forensic pathologist offered her expert opinion on how Catlin Goodwill’s three-month-old son died suddenly in October 2017, during testimony on the second day of trial.
Dr. Andreea Nistor, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, concluded that the infant died of blunt force trauma to the head. However, she could not determine if it was accidental or not.
Goodwill is charged with manslaughter in the death of his infant son, who unexpectedly stopped breathing at the family home in Regina on Oct. 14, 2017.
EMS responded to the scene. Paramedics performed life-saving measures, but the baby boy was pronounced dead at hospital.
During Nistor's external examination on the body, she found bruising on the boy’s scalp and groin, but there were no other signs of injuries, Nistor testified.
CT results showed “significant” brain bleeds inside the baby’s head, however the skull was not fractured. She did not find any other abnormalities in the infant’s organs.
“He was a well nourished baby of good size,” she said. “There’s no evidence of disease that may have caused death”
Nistor said the bruising on the brain would have happened recently and prior to the baby’s death.
Dr. Nistor sent the brain among other tissues to Dr. David Ramsey, a neuropathologist in Ontario, who performed more tests and examinations.
Ramsey concluded that the boy died from cardio respiratory arrest.
While testifying in court on Tuesday, Ramsey said the cardio respiratory arrest could have be a result of two different scenarios: a head and brain injury that took place a few hours before the infant’s death or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
“It is very hard to believe that this was a natural event that just happened to appear just after the child was put to bed,” Ramsey said, adding it is difficult to understand how the bruising and brain bleeds appeared with no explanation from the boy’s parents.
“It’s hard to say what force of impact causes what sort of events in the head.”
The neuropathologist told court that the baby’s injuries are similar to those that occur in Shaken Baby Syndrome. However, that cannot be confirmed.
During cross-examination, Nistor told court “it is possible, but not probable” that the bruising on the scalp and bleeding in the brain were a result of paramedics performing CPR and chest compressions.
“We can’t exclude it,” she said.
Defence lawyer Bruce Campbell confronted Nistor with two other reports that came to different conclusions regarding the cause of death.
A neuropathologist based out of Saskatoon concluded that the baby died from cardio pulmonary arrest as a result of serious respiratory viruses.
Nistor told court that the Saskatoon neuropathologist was commenting on something out of his area of expertise. She said he is not trained in anatomical or general pathology, only neuropathology.
“I am standing behind my opinion that the lungs did not have disease that caused death,” she said.
Another doctor who specializes in pediatrics at the Regina General Hospital could not determine the cause of death based on the findings.
Nistor ruled out Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which she described as an umbrella term for when pathologists cannot determine how a child under one year old died unexpectedly.
She sees more than five SIDS patients each year. She said the brain bleed rules out the possibility of SIDS.
The baby’s mother, Jodeci Spencer, previously testified to leaving her son home alone with Goodwill both the day before and day of his death.
She said when she returned home, the baby was napping and things seemed “ordinary.”
Spencer told court she heard him cry a couple of times throughout the evening before Goodwill eventually found the baby unresponsive and the couple called 911.
Goodwill was arrested and charged with manslaughter nearly two years after his son’s death.
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in CTV W5's 'What Happened to Ben,' on CTVNews.ca and W5's official YouTube channel.
In an effort to keep the foreign interference story at the forefront, and to do an apparent endrun around the Liberal filibuster blocking one study from going ahead, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is forcing MPs to debate and then vote on a motion instructing an opposition-dominated House committee to strike its own review.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for protests ahead of his anticipated indictment in New York have generated mostly muted reactions from supporters, with even some of his most ardent loyalists dismissing the idea as a waste of time or a law enforcement trap.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
Bargain hunters are one step closer to seeing sales at Nordstrom's closing Canadian locations. At a hearing at Osgoode Hall in Toronto on Monday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice gave the U.S. retailer's Canadian branch permission to start liquidating its merchandise.
Some of the world's largest central banks came together on Sunday to stop a banking crisis from spreading as Swiss authorities persuaded UBS Group AG to buy rival Credit Suisse Group AG in a historic deal.
The Town of Strathmore and Siksika Nation hosted the first Lead By Example Powwow this weekend in honour of a young Indigenous man who was shot to death four years ago.
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
Ontario employers who withhold foreign workers’ passports or work permits could face steeper penalties under new labour laws, with maximum fines setting them back up to $200,000.
Bargain hunters are one step closer to seeing sales at Nordstrom's closing Canadian locations. At a hearing at Osgoode Hall in Toronto on Monday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice gave the U.S. retailer's Canadian branch permission to start liquidating its merchandise.
Ontario employers who withhold foreign workers’ passports or work permits could face steeper penalties under new labour laws, with maximum fines setting them back up to $200,000.
The Rideau McDonald's Farewell March brought people from across the city, some dressed in costumes, who wanted to say goodbye to a part of what they say makes Ottawa Ottawa.
People who rely on transit to get around parts of the Fraser Valley are scrambling to find alternatives as workers with BC Transit walk the picket line.
Vancouver firefighters were called to the Downtown Eastside Sunday evening after a fire destroyed multiple tents in an encampment and spread to a building near Main and East Hastings streets.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
Quebec provincial police (SQ) announced Monday morning that a third person has died in connection with the tragedy in Amqui, in the Lower St. Lawrence region, where a driver drove his pickup truck into pedestrians a week ago.
Mounties in Port McNeill violated a suspect's Charter rights by failing to allow him to contact a lawyer promptly after his 2019 drug trafficking arrest, a judge has ruled.
The University of Prince Edward Island Faculty Association says its staff has gone on strike after what it says are failed attempts to enter additional negotiations with the university's administration.
The student union president at Cape Breton University said food insecurity has become a concern for many students and the on-campus food bank cannot keep up with demand.
A 46-year-old man has been taken to hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries after a single-vehicle crash on MR80 near Donaldson Crescent in Val Caron.
A community is in mourning after a 10-year-old girl was killed earlier this week when flames tore through her family’s camping trailer southeast of Brantford.
Waterloo regional police say they arrested nine people for impaired driving over the course of nine hours between 6:30 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day and 3:30 a.m. on March 18.
