Examiner: Ammonia may have kept teen alive

A sickle cell trait expert backs the testimony of the assailed official in a boot camp death.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE, Times Staff Writer
Published October 11, 2007

Bay County Medical Examiner Charles Siebert said in testimony Wednesday in Panama City that Martin Lee Anderson did not die of suffocation or partial suffocation.
	[AP photo]

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Ammonia pills and blows from boot camp guards didn't kill Martin Lee Anderson, Bay County's medical examiner told a jury.

Then, he added this twist: They might have been the very things keeping the teen alive.

"It was actually arousing him to a point, probably keeping him alive," Dr. Charles Siebert said.

From the time he ruled the teen's death a natural event, caused by a usually benign genetic disorder, Siebert has faced scrutiny. A state board of his peers called for his removal. He held news conferences and hired a public relations firm to protect his reputation.

In grueling testimony Wednesday, Siebert stuck to his conclusion that Anderson, 14, died from complications of sickle cell trait, a blood disorder.

Siebert performed the first autopsy on Anderson after the teen died after being roughed up by drill instructors in the boot camp yard. Siebert's announcement that the teen's death was natural angered the teen's family, which believes the guards' actions killed the boy.

Anderson's body was exhumed and brought to Tampa, where Hillsborough Medical Examiner Vernard Adams performed a second autopsy.

Adams, who testified last week in the trial, ruled the boy died of suffocation, not sickle cell.

Seven drill instructors and the camp's nurse face charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child in the case. Henry Dickens Jr., Charles Enfinger, Patrick Garrett, Raymond Hauck, Charles Helms Jr., Henry McFadden Jr. and Joseph Walsh II and camp nurse Kristin Schmidt have all testified in the case. Each faces a maximum of 30 years in prison.

Siebert's ruling was backed up in court with testimony Wednesday from Dr. Edward Eichner, an expert on sickle cell trait and an internist for the University of Oklahoma's football team. The doctor, who has performed extensive studies of athletes' deaths from sickle cell trait, supported Siebert on two fronts.

First of all, the doctor said, he viewed the video from the boot camp's yard several times, and it seemed to him a classic example of a sickle cell trait collapse, particularly because the teen's legs looked "rubbery." The teen's bodily fluid readings and chemical balances all match up with such a sickle cell collapse, he said.

He said he was 100 percent certain the teen didn't suffocate.

Also, ammonia capsules make it easier to breathe, not harder, even when put directly to the nose, Eichner said. He watches the effects firsthand during every Oklahoma football game. Players inhale the capsules before they go out on the field, and Eichner said he believes they actually increase the players' alertness and ability to breathe.

"That's a red herring, ammonia capsules," he said. "We used at least 100 of them beating Texas on Saturday."

Unlike Eichner, Siebert said he was no sickle cell expert when he first heard of the teen's death. He said he performed the autopsy and noted bruising, but no chemical burns, nothing that would explain the teen's death.

"At the end of the autopsy, I did not have a clear picture as to why Martin Anderson died," he said.

He then watched the videotape twice, once in the Bay County Sheriff's Office and once at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The teen's death was a puzzle, he said. But he didn't think ammonia was the answer.

"In your education, training and experience, has the inhalation of ammonia capsules ever harmed anyone?" asked defense attorney Robert Sombathy.

"No, it has not," Siebert said.

"In your opinion, did Martin Anderson suffocate or partially suffocate out there on the field?" Sombathy asked.

"No, he did not," Siebert said.

He did notice massive bleeding, though, and his research led him to sickle cell trait.

He said he stood by his conclusion, that he firmly believes the teen would have died even if the drill instructors had never hit him or put chemicals to his nose while covering his mouth.

"But for Martin's sickle cell trait, would he have survived the boot camp encounter?" Sombathy asked.

"Yes, he would have," Siebert said.

Siebert said repeatedly that it wasn't about saving his reputation, but about finding the truth. Under oath, he promised the jury he had the right answer.

"I've got a vested interested in the truth," he said.

Staff writer Sue Carlton contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 11, 2007, 00:59:12]