Medical examiner blasts defense witness on autopsy findings

Prosecution rests in three-week Oregon City faith-healing trial

By Matthew Graham

The Oregon City News, Jul 14, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

Deputy State Medical Examiner Christopher Young testified Tuesday, explaining autopsy procedures after the death of tiny Ava Worthington in March 2008.

Randy L. Rasmussen / Pool Photo The Oregonian

At least two people left an Oregon City courtroom in disgust Tuesday morning and many others lowered their heads, averting their eyes, as the heavy breathing of quiet crying permeated the room when prosecutors showed startling and graphic photos on large television monitors of a neck dissection during 15-month-old Ava Worthington’s autopsy.

The dramatic photos were shown during the final hours of the three-week trial of Carl Brent and Raylene Worthington, who are charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence in the March 2, 2008, death of their ailing daughter.

The Worthington family belongs to Oregon City’s Followers of Christ Church, which believes in faith healing instead of medical treatment. They were charged under a 1999 state law that removed the “spiritual treatment” defense from state manslaughter cases.

The Worthingtons’ tiny daughter died at about 7:15 p.m. in her parents’ bed from a blood infection and pneumonia. She also had a large cyst growing on the right side of her neck — described as the size of a man’s wallet — that prosecutors and doctors said could have choked her and left her malnourished.

After defense expert witness Dr. Janice Ophoven of Minnesota cast doubt last week on Deputy State Medical Examiner Christopher Young’s autopsy methods, saying that by removing the chest organs and cutting the bottom of the airway, the tension in the neck was lost and Young couldn’t know the actual orientation of the neck muscles and organs before his dissection.

Following Young’s testimony, the prosecution rested its rebuttal case. Closing arguments in the trial that began June 29 begin at 1:30 p.m.

Child not 26 inches tall

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