00:00:04
[EERIE MUSIC]
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:18
NARRATOR: A family drama turned into a nightmare.
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DR. G: This woman came to help her sister out
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and then she's found dead.
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NARRATOR: And all signs point to murder.
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The brother-in-law threatened this woman.
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And the sisters were in the fear of their lives.
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[INTERPOSING VOICES]
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NARRATOR: Then Dr. G is mystified by the sudden death
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of a healthy teenager.
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DR. G: And the family is devastated.
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They came here for a better life,
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and now their daughter is dead.
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NARRATOR: But when the mystery deepens with every clue,
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Dr. G begins to wonder if she'll ever find the answer.
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I'm hoping this isn't a dead-end autopsy.
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[OPENING THEME MUSIC]
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NARRATOR: Altered lives, baffling medical mysteries,
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shocking revelations--
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these are the everyday cases of Dr. G, Medical Examiner.
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[PERCUSSIVE MUSIC]
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Ugh.
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Well, it's a busy day today.
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We have a lot of people.
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We just don't know why they died.
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There's not a lot of obvious cases.
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So there's a lot of thinking while I'm doing the case.
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You know, sometimes death is anticipated,
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and sometimes it's just a lightning bolt. You know,
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none of these people thought they were
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going to be autopsied today.
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That's why we have to be really thankful for every day we have.
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NARRATOR: And when a life is cut short senselessly
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by a possible homicide, the stakes are even higher
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for Dr. G to solve the case.
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[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
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The story is that this woman traveled all the way
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from Sydney, Australia to Orlando
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because her sister was having problems with her marriage.
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Her husband and her young son were
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supposed to get here today.
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And they're going to go and spend the week
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at the theme parks and just enjoy the good weather here
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in Orlando.
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So she was really looking forward
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to spending some time with her husband and young child.
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NARRATOR: But on the morning of their arrival,
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Natalie fails to come down for breakfast.
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Natalie?
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NARRATOR: Sandra goes upstairs to wake her sister.
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SANDRA: Natalie?
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NARRATOR: But when she opens the door to Natalie's room,
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she's faced with a nightmare.
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The sister walks in and finds her on the ground.
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She's just found collapsed.
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Natalie?
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NARRATOR: Terrified, Sandra frantically dials 911.
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SANDRA: No. No pulse.
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[AMBULANCE SIREN]
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NARRATOR: Paramedics arrive on the scene within minutes,
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but it's too late.
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Natalie is dead.
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Dr. G's medical investigator is immediately
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called to the scene.
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When my investigator finds her,
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she's face down in her bedroom.
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It looks like she changed into her night clothes,
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but the bed looks like it hadn't been slept in.
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This is looking like whatever got her,
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it happened very quickly.
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NARRATOR: The victim's sister, Sandra,
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is beside herself with grief.
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And when questioned about Natalie's final hours,
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she reveals a shocking detail.
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DR. G: She told the police that last night,
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her husband came over and was quite angry.
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They're getting a divorce.
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And he blames his wife's sister for their marriage dissolving.
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Stop right now!
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DR. G: A big argument ensued and it was very heated.
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And right before he left, he actually threatened this woman
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and told her she better watch her back.
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It was a warm summer night.
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They actually slept with the windows open.
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He certainly still is able to get in.
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And then the next morning, the sister's found dead.
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[SHOCKING MUSIC]
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So in the back of the living sister's mind,
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she's really worried that the husband
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came back in and did something to her sister during the night.
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That's very disturbing because this is a violent man.
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And people in divorce situations,
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when marriages have dissolved, they do things that they
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really wouldn't normally do.
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And some terrible violent acts have
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occurred in these situations.
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[CREEPY MUSIC]
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NARRATOR: But police need more than just a hunch
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to open a murder investigation.
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They will need Dr. G to provide them with proof
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that it was a homicide.
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This is a woman that really has no reason to be dead.
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She's only 45 years old.
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So we definitely have to investigate to make
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sure there's no foul play here.
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[CREEPY MUSIC]
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Oh, boy.
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It's a sad one.
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Sometimes, just the timing of the death
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makes some of these cases exceptionally cruel.
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NARRATOR: According to the investigator's report,
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Natalie's husband and five-year-old son
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were on their way from Australia to join
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her on the day she died.
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They were actually going to come and visit
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and stay for a week with her.
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So we can't even tell her husband and son
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that she had died yet, because they're in route somewhere
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over the ocean right now.
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When you think of that little boy coming here to have fun,
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that's very sad.
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NARRATOR: But Dr. G can't afford to let her feelings
00:05:53
get in the way of her work.
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DR. G: When you do a case like this,
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you put all of the sadness and the emotion
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aside because you have answers to get.
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I don't know.
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I didn't see where they prescribed anything.
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I'm not cold.
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I just have to get that out of my mind.
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Because if you dwell on that, you're not going
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to be able to do your job.
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Oh, give me about three sterile blades and then a little
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blue container with alcohol.
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NARRATOR: Although foul play is number one on Dr. G's list,
00:06:25
over two decades of performing autopsies tell her it's
00:06:28
far too soon to jump to conclusions.
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DR. G: We don't know really what her cause of death
00:06:33
is going to be.
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Everything's on the table at this point.
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There are so many possibilities on how she could have
00:06:39
died but really so few clues.
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According to the sister, she's has these recurrent sinus
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headaches, and she was complaining
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that she was having headaches prior to going to bed.
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But many, many people have sinus headaches.
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She did die suddenly and unexpectedly.
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So maybe they weren't sinus headaches.
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Maybe it's something more sinister.
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Maybe it's a tumor.
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Maybe it's an infection of her sinuses
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that-- that has gotten out of control.
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I don't know what's going on.
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This is really going to be a mystery.
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NARRATOR: Sandra also reveals that Natalie apparently
00:07:14
suffered from heart palpitations.
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Ooh.
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Something's not sounding good.
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All of a sudden, her heart would stop
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but then it would start up again on its own.
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Maybe there is some type of heart disease going on.
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So I will really be focusing on her heart.
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We have a lot of possibilities on this case.
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We know she's having these sinus headaches.
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And we've got history of some--
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maybe some heart disease.
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And we have the worry about foul play.
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NARRATOR: And if it is indeed a homicide,
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police will be eager to get answers from Dr. G
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before it's too late.
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If I do find any evidence of foul play,
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the detectives will need to apprehend the prime suspect.
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But time is ticking, and this fellow may be, uh, fleeing
00:08:04
the country, for all I know.
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So there's a lot hanging on this autopsy.
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[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
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[CREEPY MUSIC]
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NARRATOR: The body of 45-year-old Natalie Hagan, who
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died suddenly under suspicious circumstances,
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has just arrived at the District Nine morgue.
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DR. G: Unfortunately, the husband and the son
00:08:36
don't even know she's dead yet.
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The first thing they're going to want to know is what happened.
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She has an argument with her sister's estranged husband
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and then she's found dead.
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What they're going to want to know is why she died.
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[DARK MUSIC]
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[PERCUSSIVE MUSIC]
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When you see her, she's got her nightgown on.
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She's got some curlers in her hair.
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She looks like she died suddenly.
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NARRATOR: Given that foul play is a likely culprit,
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Dr. G, assisted by technician Tom Hemphill,
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zeroes in on the neck and head on the lookout
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for evidence of trauma.
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I do palpate her scalp, and I don't really feel anything.
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But that's not unusual in somebody with a full head
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of hair like she has.
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Yeah, there's nothing there.
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I'd also check to make sure that the neck shows
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no evidence of strangulation.
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We'll do the neck and then after you take that off.
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We'll see when we get in there.
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I don't see a lot of trauma to her neck.
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But sometimes, you won't see that, particularly
00:09:42
if they take let's a towel or something across your neck.
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So she didn't have any external trauma that I can see,
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but you can't always tell on the outside
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and you need look on the inside.
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The only other thing I noticed is
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she had a little bit of froth coming out of her oral cavity.
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And one of the things you worry about when you
00:10:03
see that is a drug overdose.
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She's clearly upset over this episode
00:10:10
with her brother-in-law.
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Maybe she's combining alcohol with anti-anxiety drugs,
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or alcohol with some kind of pain medication.
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You never know.
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But toxicology may be the answer.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
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NARRATOR: Dr. G continues to scan Natalie's body,
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searching for any other clues that might
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explain her untimely death.
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But she looks like she's in good health.
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Mm, all right.
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This is looking like a true mystery.
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And I love a mystery.
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[DARK MUSIC]
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Let me open her up and see if I see anything.
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NARRATOR: Dr. G makes the standard Y incision
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across Natalie's chest.
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Her eyes peeled for any signs of fatal trauma.
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DR. G: I looked to see, is there any blood
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that has gotten into the tissues,
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into the muscles that would indicate like blows
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that I may not see on the skin.
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No rib fractures, at least.
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She doesn't have any of that.
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She doesn't have any rib fractures.
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Really at first glance, nothing looks unusual.
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But I am still suspicious of foul play.
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NARRATOR: Dr. G still needs to look inside the head and neck
00:11:29
for evidence of fatal injury.
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But first, she draws samples of Natalie's
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blood to send to toxicology.
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DR. G: Then the next thing I'm going to look at
00:11:39
is the heart because she's got kind of a wacky story
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about her heart stopping and starting.
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Maybe there is something wrong with her heart.
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NARRATOR: But as she inspects the organ more closely,
00:11:48
Dr. G is surprised to see it's in better shape
00:11:51
than she expected.
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Her heart's not even that big.
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All right.
00:11:58
Her heart is of normal size.
00:12:00
Doesn't look like she has long-term high blood pressure.
00:12:04
I look at the heart muscle itself.
00:12:06
There's certainly no abnormalities.
00:12:08
Unfortunately, all of her heart problems,
00:12:10
I don't see anything That's clearly
00:12:12
wasn't her cause of death.
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Oh well, I gotta move on to something else now.
00:12:18
NARRATOR: The thorough inspection
00:12:19
of Natalie's remaining organs reveals
00:12:21
nothing out of the ordinary.
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We're at a 6 by 3 centimeter.
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The [INAUDIBLE] looks beautiful .
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Her spleen is of normal size.
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Her kidneys looked OK.
00:12:31
And everything looks good.
00:12:32
Unfortunately, I don't see anything.
00:12:35
I'll [INAUDIBLE].
00:12:37
Now that I've taken all those organs out,
00:12:39
I can really dissect the neck, because I'm worried
00:12:42
that maybe he strangled her.
00:12:46
NARRATOR: Dr. G is anxious to get a look at Natalie's hyoid,
00:12:49
a small bone in the neck.
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If she was strangled to death, it's
00:12:54
possible that it was damaged.
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DR. G: That can be broken quite readily with strangulation.
00:13:01
But that hyoid bone was completely normal.
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No indication, whatsoever that she was strangled.
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I don't know.
00:13:08
I'm not sour grapes.
00:13:10
That is very disappointing.
00:13:12
All right.
00:13:13
I have no really good reason why she should be dead.
00:13:17
I ruled out strangulation to her neck.
00:13:20
I ruled out any kind of trauma to her chest and abdomen.
00:13:24
And I've ruled out most natural diseases that I can see.
00:13:28
But something going on in the brain is a possibility.
00:13:31
And there was a death threat against this woman right
00:13:34
before she was found dead.
00:13:37
So I'm still worried that there is some foul play involved.
00:13:41
Maybe a blow to the head from that angry brother-in-law
00:13:44
of hers.
00:13:44
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
00:13:47
NARRATOR: And with Natalie's family due
00:13:48
to arrive in Orlando within hours, the pressure
00:13:51
to close this case is mounting.
00:13:53
OK, guys.
00:13:54
They don't even know she's dead yet.
00:13:56
I can't give them their mom back,
00:13:58
but I was really hoping to at least give them an answer
00:14:01
right away.
00:14:05
[INTENSE MUSIC]
00:14:06
NARRATOR: Dr. G carefully cuts a slit
00:14:08
across the back of Natalie's head from ear
00:14:10
to ear, reflecting the scalp.
00:14:12
I'm looking for a blow to the back of the head,
00:14:16
maybe from an assailant.
00:14:19
But I don't see anything there.
00:14:22
[CLOCK TICKING]
00:14:23
Now I'm worried.
00:14:25
Am I going to get a cause of death?
00:14:27
NARRATOR: But in some cases, fatal trauma can only
00:14:30
be seen on the brain itself.
00:14:32
So we'll see what's on the inside.
00:14:37
Sir, you would open her head.
00:14:38
Go ahead.
00:14:40
NARRATOR: Now, morgue technician,
00:14:42
Tom Hemphill, saws off the skull cap, exposing the brain.
00:14:49
And when Dr. G steps in to take a closer look,
00:14:52
she's stunned by what she sees.
00:14:54
Oh.
00:14:55
Something's around here.
00:14:57
I'm shocked.
00:14:57
There is something going on.
00:15:00
I may have just found her killer.
00:15:06
[DARK MUSIC]
00:15:17
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:15:20
NARRATOR: Dr. G has just made a shocking discovery
00:15:23
inside the brain of 45-year-old Natalie Hagan,
00:15:26
found dead on her bedroom floor after an argument
00:15:29
with her brother-in-law the night before.
00:15:31
What the heck is that?
00:15:33
I'm shocked.
00:15:34
She's got bleeding over the brain.
00:15:38
It was nasty.
00:15:40
The surviving sister said her husband was a violent man.
00:15:44
He's very angry and from thinking hmm,
00:15:46
he might have hit her on the head.
00:15:49
So I carefully removed the brain,
00:15:52
and I very carefully take a little water
00:15:56
and just try to kind of wash off some of that blood.
00:16:01
And lo and behold, I see why she died.
00:16:05
This trumps everything.
00:16:08
NARRATOR: Dr. G contacts the authorities
00:16:10
to share her discovery.
00:16:11
DR. G: You know, the police can't
00:16:12
wait till I get the answer because there's
00:16:14
a lot hanging on this autopsy.
00:16:16
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:16:24
NARRATOR: On the last day of her life,
00:16:25
Natalie Hagan is feeling on top of the world.
00:16:29
DR. G: She is so excited about her husband and son
00:16:33
coming over from Australia.
00:16:34
And they're going to spend the week here in Orlando
00:16:37
and go to all the theme parks and have fun.
00:16:41
NARRATOR: But her excitement is abruptly
00:16:42
cut short by a disturbing visit from her brother-in-law.
00:16:46
DR. G: He actually ends up threatening her
00:16:49
because he blames her for ruining
00:16:52
the marriage with her sister.
00:16:54
They were in fear of their lives.
00:16:56
He was getting so angry.
00:16:57
(THREATENING) You may watch your back.
00:16:59
NATALIE: OK. Get out!
00:16:59
DR. G: He leaves, and she gets ready for bed.
00:17:02
And she was complaining that her sinus headaches
00:17:06
were coming back.
00:17:07
She's taking a lot of aspirin.
00:17:09
She puts her nightgown on.
00:17:11
She puts her few curlers in her hair,
00:17:13
but she's still really shaken by it.
00:17:17
NARRATOR: But unbeknownst to anyone,
00:17:19
there is something terribly wrong
00:17:21
deep inside Natalie's brain.
00:17:23
DR. G: She's a walking time bomb because she has this weakened
00:17:27
wall of a blood vessel.
00:17:29
NARRATOR: Over time, this weakened wall causes the vessel
00:17:32
to bulge or balloon out.
00:17:34
This is commonly referred to as a "berry aneurysm".
00:17:38
DR. G: We really don't know what causes it.
00:17:40
We don't know why some people have them
00:17:42
and some people don't, but it's not uncommon.
00:17:46
At least 2% of the population will have
00:17:47
some type of little aneurysm.
00:17:50
Is that what she was feeling with those sinus headaches?
00:17:54
I doubt it.
00:17:56
Many, many people have sinus headaches.
00:17:59
Usually, it's associated with allergies and irritants.
00:18:03
I think those were a red herring.
00:18:05
I don't think that had anything to do with the aneurysm.
00:18:09
She probably had that weakness in the wall for years.
00:18:13
But she probably didn't develop that aneurysm
00:18:17
until she was in adulthood.
00:18:20
Unfortunately, over time, they can
00:18:23
get bigger and bigger to the point where they can burst.
00:18:27
But not that many people actually have
00:18:30
them burst and die from them.
00:18:33
NARRATOR: Unfortunately, Natalie is one of those unlucky few.
00:18:38
DR. G: She's just had this argument
00:18:39
with her brother-in-law and although he didn't kill her,
00:18:44
because he really never did lay a hand on her,
00:18:48
ultimately, in a way, it was a straw
00:18:52
that broke the camel's back.
00:18:53
That is her reaction to what he's
00:18:56
saying to her that killed her.
00:18:58
That stress is causing her blood pressure
00:19:02
to be higher than normal.
00:19:04
NARRATOR: And this sets into motion
00:19:06
a deadly chain of events.
00:19:08
That blood vessel, which had weakened over years,
00:19:13
finally can't take the stress of this elevated blood pressure
00:19:17
and bursts open.
00:19:18
[BURSTS]
00:19:20
And the blood just starts rushing out.
00:19:23
NARRATOR: As the blood builds up inside her brain,
00:19:25
it places unbearable pressure on the organ.
00:19:29
And causes her to lose consciousness immediately.
00:19:33
And then she starts developing a slight amount of fluid
00:19:36
in her lungs.
00:19:37
NARRATOR: This fluid is then expelled from the lungs
00:19:39
into the mouth, which explains the froth Dr. G
00:19:42
found during the external exam.
00:19:45
And within the space of a few minutes, Natalie dies.
00:19:52
[EMOTIONAL MUSIC]
00:19:56
Oh, boy.
00:19:57
It looks about the time when her husband and her son
00:19:59
are just getting off the plane.
00:20:01
This happened so suddenly and unexpectedly.
00:20:04
It's just going to be hard for them to believe.
00:20:07
That's cruel for the husband, but it's twice
00:20:10
as cruel for the son who expects to be here with his mom
00:20:14
and have fun.
00:20:18
NARRATOR: Natalie's sister, Sandra,
00:20:19
takes comfort in the knowledge that she wasn't murdered.
00:20:22
But she's shattered by the loss and will now
00:20:25
go through the divorce alone.
00:20:28
However, Natalie's death also serves
00:20:30
as an important reminder of the unpredictability of life.
00:20:34
We really don't know when our time is.
00:20:37
We don't know what's going on inside.
00:20:39
And you really need to appreciate
00:20:42
every day for what it is.
00:20:45
And it just makes you want to appreciate life
00:20:47
and appreciate what you have.
00:20:52
[DARK MUSIC]
00:20:57
NARRATOR: As a medical examiner, Dr. G
00:20:59
copes with tragic, untimely death every day.
00:21:03
But some cases feel particularly unjust.
00:21:10
DR. G: This girl, who's only 18 years old, supposedly
00:21:13
perfectly healthy girl.
00:21:14
She plays soccer.
00:21:16
And then dies rather suddenly and unexpectedly after about
00:21:20
three days of not feeling well.
00:21:24
It was just a really sad experience for the family
00:21:27
as oftentimes, my cases are.
00:21:30
NARRATOR: Now, Dr. G must help the grieving family find out
00:21:33
why their loved one died so young.
00:21:36
It's devastating to them, and they really
00:21:39
want to know what happened.
00:21:43
The answers are going to lie in the autopsy.
00:21:45
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:21:51
[LIVELY MUSIC]
00:21:52
DR. G: The case today is of a 18-year-old girl.
00:21:56
She's from Nigeria, and she's only been in the country
00:21:59
for about a year.
00:22:00
She immigrated here with her family.
00:22:04
NARRATOR: For Eugenie Ademola, life in St. Cloud,
00:22:07
Florida is off to a promising start.
00:22:10
She is making friends on the local soccer team
00:22:12
and plans to begin college in the fall.
00:22:16
DR. G: She's loving life in the United States.
00:22:17
She's on a soccer team.
00:22:19
She's got a job over the summer working as a store clerk.
00:22:22
And then all of a sudden, she gets what they think is a flu.
00:22:26
[COUGHS]
00:22:27
DR. G: And for about four days, she's not feeling well,
00:22:31
thinking it's going to pass.
00:22:34
NARRATOR: Instead, it only gets worse.
00:22:36
Eugenie starts to experience chest pain and begins vomiting.
00:22:41
Her mother is worried and insists that she see a doctor.
00:22:44
She goes to one of those walking clinics.
00:22:47
And they give her anti-nausea medicine, Promethazine,
00:22:50
to keep her from vomiting.
00:22:52
And then that evening, she's vomiting some more
00:22:55
and feeling horrible.
00:22:57
Eugenie, you OK?
00:22:58
NARRATOR: Later that night, her younger brother,
00:23:00
Lewis, goes to check on her and is met with a terrifying sight.
00:23:04
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:23:05
The brother walks in to see how she's feeling,
00:23:09
and he finds her collapsed on the floor.
00:23:12
Eugenie!
00:23:12
NARRATOR: Eugenie is barely conscious.
00:23:14
Her eyes are rolling to the back of her head,
00:23:17
and she's gasping for breath.
00:23:18
Eugenie.
00:23:19
Mom!
00:23:20
Mom, come in here--
00:23:21
The mom went in there to help her
00:23:23
and noticed she had vomited up some kind of blackish material
00:23:29
that really looks almost bloody.
00:23:32
NARRATOR: Lewis calls 911.
00:23:34
And the paramedics raced to the home
00:23:35
and do all they can to save her.
00:23:38
They're trying to resuscitate her,
00:23:39
but she's never able to recover.
00:23:43
[EMOTIONAL MUSIC]
00:23:46
I mean, the family is devastated.
00:23:48
They came here for a better life and now their daughter is dead.
00:23:53
[INTENSE MUSIC]
00:23:54
NARRATOR: Now, it's up to Dr. G to find out
00:23:57
what took this young girl's life too soon.
00:24:00
DR. G: You feel sorry for the family.
00:24:02
They have no idea why she could have died.
00:24:06
I want to know what's happening to her.
00:24:11
[DARK MUSIC]
00:24:23
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:24:25
We got the rest of it
00:24:26
NARRATOR: Dr. G is determined to crack the case of Eugenie
00:24:29
Ademola, a healthy 18-year-old girl whose brother watched
00:24:33
her die just 12 hours ago.
00:24:37
This case, right from the start,
00:24:39
is probably going to be a medical mystery.
00:24:42
I don't know why she died.
00:24:44
The autopsy is going to be key.
00:24:47
NARRATOR: Dr. G starts by scouring
00:24:49
the medical investigator's report for any clue
00:24:51
to the girl's killer.
00:24:55
DR. G: She's 18.
00:24:55
You know, 18-year-olds do really stupid things.
00:24:59
We see people of this age group in the morgue a lot.
00:25:03
We see drug overdoses.
00:25:05
She have some friends and buddies on that soccer team
00:25:08
that'll give her something.
00:25:10
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:25:11
I hope it wasn't of drug overdose.
00:25:14
NARRATOR: But as Dr. G continues to read Eugenie's history,
00:25:17
another possibility jumps to the top of her list of suspects--
00:25:21
a deadly disease that strikes college age kids
00:25:24
and begins with flu-like symptoms.
00:25:26
One of the things you worry about is meningitis.
00:25:29
That would be a bacterial infection of the meninges-- the
00:25:34
covering over the brain.
00:25:36
That can cause you to die very quickly.
00:25:39
But then, you have that whole other dimension.
00:25:42
Could she be dying from some illness from Africa?
00:25:46
Or maybe it's something she wasn't vaccinated
00:25:49
against that she got here, like a fulminant chicken pox,
00:25:52
or measles, or, uh, hepatitis.
00:25:56
It's wide open at this point.
00:25:57
All right.
00:25:58
We need to figure out what it is we're going to [INAUDIBLE]..
00:26:00
OK. So we have--
00:26:01
The mom noticed she had vomited up in what
00:26:03
looked like some bloody fluid.
00:26:07
Maybe something happened in her GI tract.
00:26:10
You really start wondering about an ulcer
00:26:13
or a erosion of the lining of the stomach
00:26:16
is that what got her.
00:26:19
We don't know what she's got.
00:26:21
We just have this really short history
00:26:23
that she's completely well and then she gets sick and dies.
00:26:28
The list of things that could have killed this poor girl
00:26:31
is very long until we narrow it down.
00:26:34
And I don't know until I look at her and do the autopsy.
00:26:38
And then we'll put the pieces of the puzzle together.
00:26:43
[DARK MUSIC]
00:26:51
It's a Sunday and this one's only a young kid.
00:26:55
Overall, when you look at her, she looks good.
00:26:58
She's a muscular girl.
00:26:59
She's a young girl.
00:27:00
She doesn't look that ill to me.
00:27:03
[INAUDIBLE] blood in this.
00:27:07
When I looked into her oral cavity and inside her nose,
00:27:11
she does have some blackish fluid that looks like it's
00:27:15
a little bit of blood.
00:27:16
I'm worried about that.
00:27:19
NARRATOR: Next, Dr. G scans the body for signs
00:27:22
of infectious disease.
00:27:24
I think I do. I put a mark here.
00:27:25
Wait a minute.
00:27:26
Where did I put the mark?
00:27:27
I'm looking for lesions of chicken pox.
00:27:30
I'm looking for measles.
00:27:31
I'm looking for a rash that could
00:27:34
occur with a meningococcal meningitis.
00:27:37
But because of her skin color, uh, some of those rashes
00:27:41
may be a little harder for me to see.
00:27:46
[INAUDIBLE]
00:27:49
I was hoping that the external would give us a more
00:27:52
specific hint of the infection.
00:27:54
And I don't really see any of that.
00:27:56
Oh my god.
00:27:57
[INAUDIBLE] I don't see any signs of drug use on her,
00:28:00
but nowadays, the number one drug that people abuse
00:28:04
is going to be prescription medication,
00:28:06
and we don't see that externally.
00:28:08
And I think I'll wait to see what the rest of her autopsy
00:28:10
shows.
00:28:17
Although what I'm most worried about
00:28:19
is a meningitis or an infection, I'm always looking for trauma.
00:28:24
Could she have collapsed and hit her head
00:28:26
and then ultimately be what caused her death.
00:28:29
But I didn't see any.
00:28:30
There is no evidence of a scalp contusion.
00:28:32
There were no skull fractures.
00:28:34
NARRATOR: Dr. G then peels back the scalp.
00:28:36
And technician John Gill Martin cuts open the skull.
00:28:40
[SAW ENGINE]
00:28:43
DR. G: I removed the skull cap and get
00:28:45
our first look at the brain.
00:28:47
If she does have a bacterial meningitis, oftentimes,
00:28:51
we'll see it as a clouding.
00:28:53
Let's see if I could see anything.
00:28:56
Her brain-- the covering of her brain
00:28:58
showed no evidence of, uh, infection.
00:29:02
So I've pretty much ruled out meningitis visually,
00:29:06
but I need to wait for the cultures.
00:29:08
And I will take a piece and look under the microscope.
00:29:11
Because occasionally, you may not pick it up with your eyes.
00:29:15
Oh well.
00:29:16
I gotta move on to something else now.
00:29:18
I'm going to turn my attention now to the rest of her body
00:29:21
because I really don't think the answer is in the brain.
00:29:24
[DARK MUSIC]
00:29:31
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:29:35
NARRATOR: Dr. G opens the body with a Y incision.
00:29:38
And at first glance, she's taken aback.
00:29:41
Oh my gosh.
00:29:42
It's not looking good.
00:29:44
What really strikes me is that she's got
00:29:46
a lot of enlarged lymph nodes.
00:29:48
Lymph nodes are collections of white cells
00:29:52
that form in the body.
00:29:54
And we see them all over.
00:29:56
That's part of your immune system.
00:29:58
The tissues aren't right.
00:30:00
I'm like either it's gotta be something going
00:30:03
on that we don't know about.
00:30:05
And it's something a little more serious.
00:30:09
[DARK MUSIC]
00:30:23
NARRATOR: Dr. G has just opened the body
00:30:25
of 18-year-old Eugenie Ademola and is
00:30:28
shocked by what she sees.
00:30:29
Wow.
00:30:30
Look at that.
00:30:31
There's something going on right there.
00:30:34
She's got enlarged lymph nodes and a lot of them and very big.
00:30:38
Some of them about is 1 inch and 1/2.
00:30:40
NARRATOR: The lymph nodes are small glands
00:30:42
throughout the body that are an integral part
00:30:44
of the immune system whose purpose is to fight infection.
00:30:47
That's part of your immune system.
00:30:49
But they get very enlarged if they're being revved up
00:30:54
and an infection would tend to rev it up
00:30:57
or possibly even a cancer.
00:31:00
So I'm worried that maybe there is a cancer that's taken over.
00:31:03
Maybe a lymphoma or a tumor of the lymph system.
00:31:09
I certainly need to take some of those lymph nodes
00:31:13
and look under the microscope and see what's going on.
00:31:17
NARRATOR: But it will be days before the microbes
00:31:19
come back from the lab, and the autopsy is far from over.
00:31:23
DR. G: You have to keep an open mind when you do an autopsy.
00:31:26
You rule out this and you rule at that.
00:31:28
And you prove it's not that.
00:31:29
And you prove it's not that until you can find something.
00:31:34
NARRATOR: Dr. G now draws blood and fluid for toxicology.
00:31:38
We got the blood.
00:31:40
You need anything else?
00:31:41
You always gotta do that tox because that's sometimes
00:31:44
surprisingly has the answer.
00:31:45
You know, did she take anything that may have caused her death?
00:31:50
You never know until you test it.
00:31:53
Look, it's coming through here.
00:31:54
Look at that.
00:31:55
For one point I was thinking, could she have died from just
00:31:59
bleeding into her GI tract?
00:32:01
But lo and behold, she's not bleeding
00:32:03
at all in her GI tract.
00:32:05
She has no blood in her stomach and no evidence
00:32:08
of any kind of irritation or ulcer a to her GI tract.
00:32:13
So whatever is causing this black stuff to come out,
00:32:18
it's not coming out of her GI track.
00:32:20
[SAW ENGINE]
00:32:25
NARRATOR: Dr. G then moves on to the liver and spleen.
00:32:28
The liver is normal, but the spleen--
00:32:30
an organ that is part of the immune system
00:32:32
and helps fight infection-- is not.
00:32:35
Her spleen is firm and slightly enlarged.
00:32:40
At this point, I'm worried that she does have
00:32:42
some type of infectious process going on,
00:32:44
but I haven't even ruled out a cancer yet,
00:32:47
a particular lymphoma because of all those big lymph nodes.
00:32:55
NARRATOR: Next, Dr. G examines the heart.
00:32:58
Maybe she's got a viral infection
00:33:00
inside the muscle of the heart.
00:33:02
And that can cause a sudden death.
00:33:05
NARRATOR: Dr. G takes out Eugenie's heart, weighs it,
00:33:08
and examines the muscle and arteries.
00:33:10
She got very nice coronary arteries.
00:33:13
Her heart is completely normal.
00:33:16
No evidence kind of general abnormalities.
00:33:19
NARRATOR: As each lead slips through her fingers,
00:33:21
Dr. G wonders if she'll ever find an answer.
00:33:24
She now pins her hopes on finding a clue in the lungs.
00:33:28
It doesn't look great.
00:33:29
Yeah.
00:33:30
Her lungs looked really bad.
00:33:35
She has a lot of hemorrhage and a lot of fluid in the lungs.
00:33:38
I don't know how she's breathing at all.
00:33:41
I don't know what's going on.
00:33:46
They didn't show what I would say is classic pneumonia.
00:33:50
In a typical pneumonia, we'd see kind of a lumpy, bumpy pattern
00:33:54
because the white cells fill up the air spaces.
00:33:59
I don't feel that.
00:34:01
Oh gosh.
00:34:02
I don't-- But the lungs definitely don't look right.
00:34:05
And I can't explain it.
00:34:08
I'm not going to be able to tell until I
00:34:09
look under the microscope.
00:34:12
When I finish the autopsy, the main thing
00:34:14
I really need to look at is what's
00:34:16
going on in those lymph nodes and what's
00:34:18
going on in those lungs.
00:34:20
So I'm really eager to get those slides back.
00:34:25
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:34:32
NARRATOR: Two days after the autopsy,
00:34:34
the lab work is delivered to the morgue.
00:34:38
DR. G: The first thing I'm going to look
00:34:40
for is those microscopics of her lymph nodes.
00:34:44
Let's see if we could see anything.
00:34:46
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:34:51
I look at the lymph nodes, and there's
00:34:53
no evidence of a lymphoma.
00:34:56
So I've ruled out cancer of the lymphocytes.
00:34:59
But they look more just that they
00:35:01
were enlarged and stimulated.
00:35:04
That's why I'm thinking, boy, she
00:35:06
probably does have some infection going on those lungs.
00:35:12
NARRATOR: Dr. G immediately checks the cultures
00:35:14
and discovers she is right.
00:35:16
DR. G: It's clear she's got a very
00:35:17
virulent or aggressive staph aureus bacterial infection.
00:35:23
But staph infection is actually causing
00:35:25
death to the tissues in her lung, incompatible with life.
00:35:31
Certainly, that's why she died.
00:35:35
But what doesn't make sense is why
00:35:38
would somebody so young you think, perfectly healthy,
00:35:42
die from this?
00:35:43
NARRATOR: Then Dr. G combs through all the lab results.
00:35:47
And there in one single test, she finally finds the answer.
00:35:52
I am shocked.
00:35:53
This was unexpected, totally unexpected.
00:35:56
[INTENSE MUSIC]
00:36:00
[DARK MUSIC]
00:36:15
NARRATOR: Dr. G has just discovered
00:36:17
that Eugenie Ademola died from a massive staph infection
00:36:20
in the lungs.
00:36:22
DR. G: But it's hard to wrap around the fact
00:36:25
that this girl, that's so healthy,
00:36:27
a soccer player of one week and dead the next,
00:36:30
know why she has this virulent staph aureus infection.
00:36:37
And then I got another shock.
00:36:41
NARRATOR: Finally, the result of one test in the lab report
00:36:44
gives her the astonishing answer.
00:36:46
When I was looking through all of her labs, at the end,
00:36:50
I noticed that the test for HIV--
00:36:55
human immunodeficiency virus-- was positive.
00:37:00
Oh my.
00:37:02
That was lightning out of the blue.
00:37:06
She's a young, healthy girl.
00:37:08
And we really didn't think that was the possibility.
00:37:12
But you know, her HIV surprised us.
00:37:15
She didn't give us any warning signs that she would have HIV.
00:37:19
She certainly didn't have any history of sharing
00:37:22
needles or being a drug user.
00:37:27
NARRATOR: Finally, Dr. G knows exactly what happened.
00:37:30
DR. G: I have her cause of death.
00:37:32
I finally put it together with that last clue.
00:37:36
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:37:44
NARRATOR: Just one week before her death, Eugenie
00:37:47
is playing soccer and working to save for college.
00:37:50
She's feeling good.
00:37:52
There's nothing bothering her.
00:37:54
And then all of a sudden, she's not feeling well.
00:37:57
She's really starting to feel bad.
00:38:01
NARRATOR: Eugenie takes over-the-counter
00:38:02
cold medication, but it doesn't help.
00:38:06
[COUGHS]
00:38:07
NARRATOR: Then fate delivers a brutal blow.
00:38:10
For whatever reason, she gets exposed
00:38:13
to a staph aureus, a bacteria.
00:38:15
That bacteria starts taking hold.
00:38:19
NARRATOR: Staph bacteria are everywhere and are not
00:38:21
usually life threatening, especially
00:38:23
for an athletic teenage girl.
00:38:25
But what Eugenie doesn't know is that she's
00:38:27
also infected with human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.
00:38:34
DR. G: I don't know how she got HIV.
00:38:36
We didn't know anything about her sexual activity.
00:38:40
And she certainly didn't use needles.
00:38:43
NARRATOR: The most likely explanation is that she
00:38:45
got it through sexual contact.
00:38:47
She's clearly just infected with the HIV virus.
00:38:52
Things are happening inside of her body
00:38:55
that she's not even aware of.
00:38:57
The virus is attacking lymphocytes.
00:39:00
It's causing her lymph nodes to grow,
00:39:03
trying to fight off the infection.
00:39:05
NARRATOR: Her spleen is also enlarged, going into overdrive,
00:39:08
trying to combat HIV.
00:39:10
When her immune system is then invaded
00:39:12
by toxic staph bacteria, it is too weak to defend itself.
00:39:16
She got the double whammy in that
00:39:19
her immune system had already been
00:39:20
compromised with the HIV virus.
00:39:23
So it was even harder for her to fight
00:39:25
off this type of bacteria.
00:39:28
NARRATOR: Within days, the bacteria latch onto her lungs,
00:39:31
causing a fatal infection.
00:39:33
DR. G: When that bacteria starts taking hold in her lungs
00:39:36
is when she really starts getting sick.
00:39:40
Her body defenses can't keep that bacteria in check.
00:39:44
And once it starts growing, producing that toxin
00:39:47
in her lungs, it's taking over.
00:39:50
[COUGHS]
00:39:52
DR. G: She has a rapid downhill course, more difficulty
00:39:56
breathing because she's getting more and more
00:39:57
necrosis or death to some of the tissue,
00:40:01
more hemorrhage in her lungs.
00:40:03
She's probably coughing up some of this blood,
00:40:05
swallowing it and vomiting it, which
00:40:08
is making her feel even worse.
00:40:10
NARRATOR: By the time Eugenie's mother takes her
00:40:11
to the clinic , the staph infection
00:40:13
is on its way to killing her.
00:40:16
And unfortunately, she is misdiagnosed with a flu
00:40:19
and sent home with anti-nausea medication.
00:40:23
DR. G: She could have died just from the extent of the bleeding
00:40:28
inside of her lungs.
00:40:29
But that bacteria is also growing and reproducing
00:40:33
and eventually, gets into her bloodstream.
00:40:36
NARRATOR: Once the infection enters her bloodstream,
00:40:38
Eugenie's weakened body is unable to fight anymore.
00:40:41
One by one, her organs shut down.
00:40:45
DR. G: This cascade of events causes
00:40:47
her blood pressure to drop to the point
00:40:49
where she then just collapses.
00:40:51
And she ultimately dies.
00:40:57
[EMOTIONAL MUSIC]
00:41:00
This was not what I expected she died from.
00:41:05
Her family, obviously, is sad no matter why she died.
00:41:10
They're particularly upset that she died so quickly.
00:41:13
That's always hard to take.
00:41:14
And then we have to tell her on top that she had HIV infection.
00:41:20
NARRATOR: Dr. G can't be sure if Eugenie contracted HIV
00:41:24
in Africa, where AIDS is a major epidemic,
00:41:27
or in the US, where an estimated 50,000 new cases of HIV
00:41:32
are diagnosed each year.
00:41:34
[EMOTIONAL MUSIC]
00:41:35
DR. G: I don't think she knew she had HIV infection.
00:41:38
Her family certainly didn't know.
00:41:40
We didn't have any record that we
00:41:42
could find that she'd ever been tested
00:41:43
here in the United States.
00:41:46
I do know that she would have been tested
00:41:48
prior to coming over here.
00:41:50
And if they had known at that time that she was infected,
00:41:53
they probably wouldn't have let her immigrate.
00:41:56
Because you, at this time, could not even
00:41:58
get into the United States with a positive HIV
00:42:02
unless she had some kind of special waiver.
00:42:07
So you know, it was just a really sad
00:42:09
experience for the family as oftentimes my cases are.
00:42:14
It's very slow, indolent infection.
00:42:16
And that's why we're trying to get everybody between 13 and 64
00:42:20
in the United States tested because you
00:42:23
could be infected for a long, long time, not know it.
00:42:26
You can spread it to other people.
00:42:28
DR. G: We need to start thinking not of HIV as a stigma,
00:42:34
but as a normal disease.
00:42:36
We need to routinely test for it and not think of it
00:42:39
as some kind of horrible thing.
00:42:42
Because nowadays, there's good treatment.
00:42:45
It's not the death sentence it used to be.
00:42:49
You can outlive the disease.
00:42:50
You can die from something else if you treat it well.
00:42:53
(SINGING) Come back to me.
