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Saturday, August 23, 2025

Jasher’s parents accept result of second autopsy

Mom: My son will now get justice

by

12 days ago
20250811

Griev­ing par­ents Aaron and Yh­nique Fran­cois say a pri­vate­ly com­mis­sioned sec­ond au­top­sy on their six-year-old son Jash­er has over­turned the find­ings of the first, re­new­ing their hope for jus­tice.

They made the rev­e­la­tion at their San Fer­nan­do home yes­ter­day, short­ly af­ter a pri­vate­ly com­mis­sioned, in­de­pen­dent au­top­sy was con­duct­ed on their son, Jash­er, at Guides Fu­ner­al Home by pathol­o­gist Pro­fes­sor Dr Hu­bert Dais­ley.

Jash­er died at the San Fer­nan­do Teach­ing Hos­pi­tal on Thurs­day, af­ter be­ing ad­min­is­tered an in­tra­venous drug. He had been ad­mit­ted for a dry cough but died af­ter be­ing giv­en the drug.

The par­ents, who ap­peared calm and com­posed for the first time in days yes­ter­day, said they felt vin­di­cat­ed by the find­ings of the sec­ond au­top­sy and are now prepar­ing their son’s fu­ner­al for Sat­ur­day.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Aaron Fran­cois said they felt vin­di­cat­ed with the find­ings of the sec­ond au­top­sy, as it was “way dif­fer­ent” to the find­ings of the first au­top­sy, which list­ed the cause of death as as­pi­ra­tion pneu­moni­tis.

Say­ing they were await­ing Pro­fes­sor Dais­ley’s writ­ten re­port be­fore shar­ing full med­ical de­tails, Aaron said they felt a mea­sure of peace.

“With­out a shad­ow of a doubt, this con­firms what we be­lieved hap­pened to our son,” he said at the fam­i­ly’s San Fer­nan­do home.

“It’s a ma­jor step in the right di­rec­tion. We can now start to or­gan­ise our­selves to put Jash­er to rest.”

The par­ents said the sec­ond au­top­sy has al­so strength­ened their re­solve to see through an in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing their son’s death. That probe, they said, is be­ing fa­cil­i­tat­ed by the Min­is­ter of Health and will be con­duct­ed by a team from out­side the South-West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty.

Aaron added, “We’ve al­ready put in our Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion re­quest for Jash­er’s hos­pi­tal notes. I’m hop­ing the in­de­pen­dent in­ves­ti­ga­tion will al­so shine light on where er­rors in judge­ment may have been made.”

Mean­while, moth­er Yh­nique Fran­cois said she, too, felt com­fort­ed by the sec­ond au­top­sy.

“Al­though it can’t bring my son back, it vin­di­cates what we knew in our hearts. At least now, Jash­er will get jus­tice,” she de­clared.

Aaron al­so had a mes­sage for oth­er par­ents: “If you take your child to the hos­pi­tal, stay with them 24/7. Have a pen and a notepad. Write down the names of the nurs­es and doc­tors, the med­ica­tions they’re giv­ing, what they’re for, and any pos­si­ble side ef­fects.

“Ask ques­tions—don’t just as­sume every­thing is fine. I had blind faith in the med­ical staff, and I nev­er used to ques­tion them. That was my mis­take.”

While the fam­i­ly has not yet start­ed coun­selling, Aaron said they were heart­ened by the love and sup­port they have been get­ting from friends, fam­i­ly and mem­bers of the pub­lic. He al­so ex­pressed grat­i­tude to Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar for set­ting up a probe in­to the death.

The fu­ner­al for Jash­er will take place on Sat­ur­day at the Bap­tist Am­bas­sadors for Christ Church in St John’s Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do, from 11 am.


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