A mother accused of killing her daughter burst out in tears yesterday when autopsy photographs of the child were shown to the court.

Dr. Amenemhat Waset Amen-Ra Tamerry, 48, and his wife Maatkai Hatsheput Tamerry, 36, are charged with unlawfully killing their ten-month-old daughter, A'Maya.

The couple were formerly known as Clark Godwin and Regina Woods but had their names legally changed.

Yesterday, the court heard from forensic pathologist Dr. John Obafunwa who performed the autopsy on A'Maya in the morning of March 2, 2001. Photographs of A'Maya's deceased body were shown to the court on a projection screen while Dr. Obafunwa explained the images. When the first image of A'Maya's body was shown, her mother burst out crying and the court proceedings were halted.

The mother was eventually allowed to leave the proceedings while the photographs were being shown. She was escorted out of the courtroom by the father, who returned for the remainder of yesterday's Supreme Court session before Chief Justice Richard Ground.

Indicating photos as he went along, Dr. Obafunwa said the muscles between the baby's ribs had sunken in the valleys between them and the bones were fairly close to the surface. This was due to loss of body fat. A'Maya's stomach also showed a pinkish discoloration possibly due to a number of factors, including inadequate oxygen, overwhelming infection, and a low platelet count, he said.

The child also had a rash on her vulva which Dr. Obafunwa said was from a yeast infection that would have been present and visible for weeks. The rash was also found around the anus and groin area.

Dr. Obafunwa told the court he did not find any sign of an absorption problem in the child's stool.

The child was “remarkably small for her age” - with a weight of eight pounds three ounces, and a length of 62 centimetres.

A ten-month-old child should weigh about 20 pounds and a child that measured 62 centimetres should weigh about 14 pounds, he added. Her skin had lost elasticity and he described A'Maya's eyes as cloudy and sunken. The fat around the eye sockets had disappeared.

He told the court that after viewing the eyes he felt it was necessary to call in an ophthalmologist. The baby's hair was also discoloured - brown - and silky which Dr. Obafunwa said would have been due to a protein calorie deficiency.

While this would have taken weeks or months to develop, it may not have been noticeable to the parents, he said.

People of African decent are expected to have black hair not brown, he added. A'Maya's fingernails had turned bluish in colour due to a “reduced amount of oxygen”.

An infection in her lungs would have caused less oxygen to flow in her body, he said. In his autopsy report, Dr. Obafunwa noted that she had almost double the normal amount of potassium in her blood (7.9 millilitres in a litre of blood, 3.5 to 4.5 is normal).

Her blood was acidic and an iron and protein deficiency caused it to appear pale.

The iron deficiency would have also led to a pale appearance in the child and exhaustion, he said. Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Kulandra Ratneser asked the pathologist if the body loses weight after death.

Dr. Obafunwa said it would not unless it was left out to decompose. There would have been no weight loss from time of death to time of autopsy, he said.

Dr. Obafunwa said the cause of death was pneumonia in both lungs, disturbance of chemical composition of the blood, protein calorie malnutrition and neglect - which he described as a medical diagnosis - severe anaemia, red cells severely depleted and failure to thrive. Neglect in the medical term means failure to provide all necessary requirements, Dr. Obafunwa said.

An infant A'Maya's age would have been totally dependant on parents. Dr. Obafunwa's testimony will continue today.

Earlier in the court proceedings, the court heard from Dr. Rosyln Bascombe-Adams, one of the medical professionals who treated A'Maya at King Edward VII Memorial hospital in the hours before her death on March 1, 2001. A'Maya was brought in shortly before midnight on February 28, following an 911 call from her mother. Dr. Bascombe-Adams told the court the baby's condition was so serious fluids had to be pumped into her body through bone.

“There was no time to try and find a vein,” she said. “We had to get fluid in as soon as possible”

She said the baby might have been saved if she had been brought in earlier. “To be honest, my first impression was this baby is dead,” she said, when asked on cross-examination whether the baby had been dehydrated.

She was in the fourth stage of dehydration - the highest.

Based on what the mother had told her of the child's behaviour before they brought her to the hospital, she was already dangerously dehydrated in the morning of February 28.

She said she was told A'Maya had to be coaxed to eat and was very restless - “those were the danger signs that were not acted on,” she said. Chest X-rays also showed signs of pneumonia, she said: “If it is present here it has not just occurred.”

A'Maya's mother had told her that when the family returned from the UK, two days before, both mother and daughter had a respiratory infection.

On cross examination yesterday she said, to her knowledge, sea moss is not given to children.

“It's usually used by young men who think their performance will be enhanced,” she said.

“In my neck of the woods it is not given to children.”

She also admitted that she may have mis-reported what was given to A'Maya as her last meal.

The medical report said she was given canola and sea moss, but yesterday, Dr. Bascombe-Adams said the meal better fit the description of Quinoa (a grain) and sea moss.