Pathologist says — at best — Yosif Al-Hasnawi had 50 per cent chance to live after being shot
A photograph showing the bullet wound on Yosif Al-Hasnawi's abdomen appeared as witnesses have described it: a small hole with a small amount of blood on the surface of the skin.
But Dr. Elena Bulakhtina, the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy on the 19-year-old's body, said exsanguination - in other words, blood loss - was the ultimate cause of death.
There was blood, two litres of blood, in the abdominal cavity," she testified over Zoom on Thursday, adding that there was another 0.5 litres in the muscle and surrounding tissue.
A person of Al-Hasnawi's age and weight would have approximately six litres of blood.
Al-Hasnawi was shot on Dec. 2, 2017, near Main Street East and Sanford Avenue South, and later died of his injuries.
Former Hamilton paramedics Christopher Marchant and Steve Snively are charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life in the death of the gunshot victim.
The pathologist described where and how she located the bullet - a .22-calibre - in Al-Hasnawi's body.
The bullet, she said, penetrated the skin, entered the abdominal cavity, perforated two blood vessels - a high-pressure" artery and a vein - and lodged itself in the muscles of the abdomen.
Lawyer Jeffrey Manishen, who is representing Marchant, pressed Bulakhtina on the details of her autopsy report in cross-examination.
The femoral blood sample revealed traces of methamphetamine," Manishen said, reading from the report.
That's correct," she said.
Bulakhtina wrote in the report that the drug could explain the combativeness" of the victim. Another explanation could be the stress of being shot.
It had nothing to do with the cause of death," she said of the toxicology results.
Both examination by the Crown and by the defence focused on the post-mortem report, which includes a review on survival rates for similar kinds of gunshot wounds.
I'm left with the impression, and I want you to correct me if I'm wrong, that given the odds here, the chances of this boy surviving were 50 per cent at best," asked Justice Harrison Arrell, who sought clarification after cross-examination.
Yes," Bulakhtina confirmed.
And they were 50 per cent at best from the moment he got shot?" he asked.
Yes," she said.
Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com