An au­top­sy has found that nine-month-old Salileen Ram­sa­roop, who was re­port­ed­ly fed in­sec­ti­cide by a rel­a­tive, died from a con­di­tion caused by a build-up of flu­id in her lungs. How­ev­er, in­ves­ti­ga­tors are still await­ing the re­sults of a tox­i­col­o­gy re­port. The ba­by al­so test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

Up to yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, a 30-year-old fe­male sus­pect was still in po­lice cus­tody. In­ves­ti­ga­tors were await­ing ad­vice from the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions on how to pro­ceed with the mat­ter.

An au­top­sy con­duct­ed at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, re­vealed that her death was the re­sult of pul­monary ede­ma. Ac­cord­ing to the Yale Med­i­cine web­site, the con­di­tion caus­es flu­id to ac­cu­mu­late in the lungs, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to breathe. It stat­ed that sev­er­al con­di­tions may cause pres­sure with­in the left side of the heart, lead­ing to ex­cess flu­id en­ter­ing the lungs.

How­ev­er, the sus­pect, who is a close rel­a­tive, al­leged­ly con­fessed to the po­lice that she gave ba­by Salileen in­sec­ti­cide. She told the po­lice that she was frus­trat­ed be­cause the ba­by was cry­ing un­con­trol­lably. The in­ci­dent oc­curred at the home of the ba­by’s step-grand­moth­er at Busy Cor­ner, New Grant, last Wednes­day.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­port, the sus­pect ad­mit­ted to feed­ing Salileen Malathion in­sec­ti­cide us­ing a sy­ringe. She left the ba­by on a bed and short­ly af­ter found her un­re­spon­sive. The ba­by’s aunt told re­porters that she per­formed CPR on the ba­by as they await­ed the ar­rival of the am­bu­lance. Salileen was tak­en to the Princes Town Health Fa­cil­i­ty and then to the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, where she died.

Po­lice seized a sy­ringe, a ba­by bot­tle and a 250-ml bot­tle with the mark­ings Malathion at the home.

When con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, the ba­by’s step-grand­moth­er, Sharmela De­onar­ine, said she was not sure what the au­top­sy re­sults said. While she has not spo­ken to or seen the sus­pect since she was de­tained, De­onar­ine said the po­lice told her that she was “do­ing al­right.”

She said the ba­by’s fu­ner­al is ex­pect­ed to take place to­mor­row at Boodoo’s Fu­ner­al Home in Pe­nal.