REGINA – A doctor testifying from New Zealand in Regina Court of King’s Bench spoke of responding to a child presenting with cardiac arrest.
Dr. Juliet Soper - via video - testified in the second-degree murder trial of Chelsea Rae Whitby, accused of second-degree murder in the death of her son, Emerson William Bryan Whitby. Initially, she had been charged with manslaughter, but it had been upgraded to the greater charge during 2021 court proceedings.
“My diagnosis was that of trauma, that his injuries all of them were the cause of trauma when taken together,” said Dr. Soper in response to Crown prosecutor Aly Sparks’ question of Emerson’s overall condition.
Dr. Soper responded to an overhead page at the Regina General Hospital at 10:45 a.m. on June 10, 2020, for a child presenting with cardiac arrest in the emergency room. While she was not on-call, she responded to the page as a paediatrician in the building. Shortly after, her colleague that was on-call arrived, and she was able to leave as enough staff were on hand.
An hour later, Dr. Soper would become involved with Emerson’s care once again as her colleague was concerned that the child’s presentation had been trauma - a conclusion after the presence of bruising and results of the CT scan. At 3:56 p.m. that afternoon, Emerson was declared brain dead.
“I stayed with Emerson and the medical team through much of the day, coordinating care, communicating with the parents, and I looked for what could be causing the presentation,” Dr. Soper explained of her involvement.
She also explained Emerson scored a “three” that on the Glasgow Coma Scale; the lowest score in assessing consciousness. An example of this low level was noted that Emerson was not put under sedation when intubated.
“Typically, when someone has a tube in their throat to breathe, it is very uncomfortable,” said Dr. Soper. “Emerson required no sedation - he was completely unresponsive in all regards.”
As with previous witnesses, Sparks led Dr. Soper through the various marks and bruises on Emerson’s body; asking the paediatrician to describe them through various photographs taken at the hospital.
One key point throughout the trial concerning bruising was a pattern along Emerson’s jawline, which was speculated to be caused by the beaded lanyards connecting a pacifier to the boy’s clothing. The thought was that Emerson sleeping on the silicone beads had caused the bruises, but Dr. Soper noted there “wouldn’t have been enough force while sleeping to damage blood vessels and cause bruising.” Rather, she explained that areas of redness would appear instead, which would resolve once the pressure was removed. Dr. Soper was not sure what the possible cause could be.
Sparks also asked about how common it is for children that are 18 months old to present with two black eyes, as Emerson did on May 25, 2020.
“It’s extremely rare,” said Dr. Soper, adding that when she’s seen such injuries, it’s often associated with “significant bruising on the forehead,” with gravity eventually pulling that bruising down.
Another injury addressed many times were the bruises on Emerson’s side - something theorized to have been caused by him being picked up by other children. Dr. Soper denied that as a cause, adding that children simply would not have the hand strength to damage blood vessels and cause bruising the way it had been displayed in the images.
“Even if a child had picked him up and dropped Emerson in some way, it would be unusual to land in a way to sustain those bruises,” she said.
As for the injury to the tip of Emerson’s collarbone, Dr. Soper noted she had not observed an injury like this before in a young child. She explained that while children do incur breaks to the collarbone, they’re usually located in the middle of the bone instead of the tip.
Previous to Dr. Soper’s testimony was the continuance of with Whitby’s Aug. 5, 2020 statement to police. She recalled a point just after checking on Emerson at 10 a.m. where she “wiggled” him. In the video, Whitby explains how she lifted Emerson’s arm twice, and a leg once, with all three occurrences seeing the limp appendage fall back to the mattress. Assuming her toddler was still in a deep sleep, Whitby then began to move him, calling Emerson’s name.
“I just feel like a monster and a bad mom,” she said at one point, during the interrogation. The interviewer then tried to comfort Whitby, noting it may be a “possible scenario of how the injury happened,” that “it adds something to the story.”
“All I know is that my son is gone and my heart is shattered,” Whitby said.
After recounting the timeline of events during the morning on June 10, 2020 multiple times throughout the statement - especially focussing on the moments where Whitby’s boyfriend, Taylor Stewart, had gone to buy milk - the interviewer made a comment that triggered an explosion from Whitby.
“You can see how your story is pure convenience,” he said, to which an exasperated Whitby replied “I’m done - I want my lawyer!”
The trial is expected to wrap this week.
— for more from Crime, Cops and Court.
