Pathologist who found 20-year-old college student died of a sore throat once testified he doesn't like putting anything negative in autopsy reports
Indiana University student Mia Roy, who was found dead in her apartment in Bloomington, Ind., on Sept. 14, 2021, died from essentially a sore throat, according to the pathologist who did the autopsy on her body.
But the pathologist, a Nigerian immigrant named Dr. Bamidele Adeagbo who works at Terre Haute Regional Hospital, has a concerning history.
Before coming to Indiana in 2018, he worked in the medical examiner’s office in Calgary in Alberta, Canada. In 2017, he was appointed the chief medical examiner there.
In a high-profile case in which the parents of a toddler in Alberta were charged in connection with his death, Adeagbo told the judge that he avoids putting anything negative on autopsy reports.
Here is the relevant part of that testimony, from the 2019 trial:
Judge: "Okay. But, in that answer, you say it was your practice not to include negative things. Is that a truthful answer?"
Adeagbo: "I generally put positive things on the report. I do that, I do that. I mean, this is not -- when I say "in my practice," in general. I mean, this is a situation where I put something that's in -- but, in general, that's how I was doing it. But now, because I've tried to have a concise report, and I tried to put the parts in positive things. It is very bad to put pertinent negative things. In this case I did not put it, and I agree that I could have done it differently."
A blogger in Canada wrote about the trial, saying Adeagbo’s behavior in the courtroom in Calgary was so bizarre and disruptive that it turned what was going to be a two-week trial into a three-month trial as the judge struggled to get him to answer basic questions.
”During one explosive rant, Dr. Adeagbo paced the floor while yelling at the court and the questioner in an indiscernible dialog all while seeming oblivious to the fact that he was testifying in a court of law,” the blogger wrote.
His ability to read medical charts was also called into question when Adeagbo testified that the toddler had been dead for several hours before he was taken in an ambulance to the hospital when this was clearly not the case.
“It was further discovered that Dr. Adeagbo struggled to read basic medical charts,” wrote the blogger, who was in the courtroom during the trial. “In one instance Dr. Adeagbo based his findings off of a belief that medical staff were unable to resuscitate Ezekiel and that his state was much worse than it was. It was clear to everyone present that his assessment was miles away from reality.”
The case attracted so much attention, in particular to Adeagbo’s bizarre testimony, that there were calls to re-examine every suspicious death case in which he performed the autopsy.
But to bring it back to the United States…
Dr. Dele Adeagbo, as he is known, is now the forensic pathologist being contracted by Monroe County, Indiana, to perform autopsies.
It is a forensic pathologist’s findings that determine the cause of death, so the importance of this work and the person performing this work can not be overstated.
Mia Roy, a 20-year-old college student at Indiana University, was found dead on the floor of her bedroom in her off-campus apartment on Sept. 14, 2021 of no apparent cause a few weeks after the university’s vaccine mandate went into effect.
There was no self-harm suspected, and no foul play. She was just dead.
Adeagbo said in his autopsy report that the cause of Mia Roy’s death was laryngeopharyngitis and that her death was natural.
Laryngeopharyngitis is inflammation of the larynx and pharynx — a sore throat, essentially.
How could a healthy 20-year-old possibly die of a sore throat?
How would it even be possible to tie the death of a healthy adult to a sore throat?
Also….
Was there something negative that Dr. Adeagbo might have seen but didn’t want to report? Is he competent to conduct a forensic autopsy? Can his reports be trusted?
His troubles in Canada seem to have followed him to Indiana.
A year before performing the autopsy on Mia Roy, Adeagbo was facing felony charges for a drunk-driving accident in which he hit and injured a woman.
When this was brought to the attention of Monroe County Coroner Joani Stalcup, she replied that the county previously used a pathologist at the same hospital named Dr. Roland Kohr, but that he had retired in July 2021.
“Prior to Dr. Kohr’s retirement, he vetted and did extensive research into Dr. Adeagbo’s background as well as worked with him at Terre Haute Regional Hospital, prior to choosing him as his replacement,” Stalcup wrote in an email. “The media has painted a not so pretty picture of Dr. Adeagbo however, I have not witnessed this behavior first hand nor experienced any issues with his ability to perform his job.”
She recommended reaching out to Adeagbo or his attorney about any questions about him or his past.
“I can only speak to the cases he has performed autopsies for through my office,” said Stalcup, “and I have not had any issue with his work.”
Wish I could say unbelievable alas no. Just saying, a well known Indiana hospital corporation is recruiting students from Nigeria to train as nurses. They are receiving room, board, and tuition in exchange for x number of years service. I have them as students in an Essential Nursing class, very kind, in general, as a people group, and several can not do 6th grade math. The harm done when they cannot succeed is incalculable. The recruiters for this scheme are incompetent and should be hung out to dry. Due to a lack of teachers in Nigeria their learning is at the basic "knowledge" level and much is done through copying observed behavior, no critical judgement. I'd be checking out Dr. Adeagbo's credentials.
What a load of horse manure.
This is a shame on Indiana.