• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Medical doubts that Kelly committed suicide

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Jan. 27, IRNA - Three special medical professionals Tuesday 
expressed doubts whether former Iraq arms inspector David Kelly 
committed suicide, as presumed, after being named as the source of a 
BBC report claiming the government exaggerated Iraq`s arms threat. 
"We do not consider the evidence given at the Hutton inquiry has 
demonstrated that Dr David Kelly committed suicide," said trauma and 
orthopaedic surgery specialist David Halpin, diagnostic radiologist, 
Stephen Frost, and specialist in anesthesiology, Searle Sennett. 
Their doubts, expressed in a letter to the Guardian newspaper, 
came on the eve of Hutton`s publication of his inquiry into the 
circumstances of Kelly`s death last July. 
Nicholas Hunt, the forensic pathologist at the inquiry, concluded 
that the arms inspector bled to death from a self-inflicted wound to 
his left wrist, but the three medical professionals said that they 
view this as "highly improbable." 
Arteries in the wrist are of matchstick thickness and severing 
them does "not lead to life-threatening blood loss," their letter 
said. 
It added that the only artery said to be cut - the ulnar artery - 
had been completely transected, which causes it to quickly retract, 
close down and promote clotting. 
The specialists also argued that the ambulance team reported that 
the quantity of blood at the scene was only minimal and surprisingly 
small. 
"It is extremely difficult to lose significant amounts of blood 
at a pressure below 50-60 systolic in a subject who is compensating by
vasoconstricting," they said. 
"To have died from hemorrhage, Dr Kelly would have had to lose 
about five pints of blood - it is unlikely that he would have lost 
more than a pint," their letter said. 
It also ruled out the possibility of a drugs overdose from the 
evidence given by forensic toxicologist, Alexander Allan, who was 
able to find only a fifth of one CoProxamol tablet in his stomach fro 
29 said to be missing from the packet found. 
Allan went on to concede to the inquiry that the blood level of 
each of the drug`s two components was less than a third of what would 
normally be found in a fatal overdose. 
"We dispute that Dr Kelly could have died from hemorrhage or from 
Co-Proxamol ingestion or from both," the medical professionals said. 
They suggested that the inquest, adjourned until after the Hutton 
report, should scrutinize more closely the cause of death. 
HC/NB/210 
End