Inquest told how refugee child died on flight to New York

AN INQUEST has found that a child died of bronchial pneumonia on board a New York-bound flight that was forced to make an emergency landing at Shannon airport last April.

Clare county coroner Isobel O’Dea found the cause of death of Lemuna Armadan Osman, from Eritrea, on April 22nd was brought about by bronchial pneumonia with the contributory factor of the toddler’s low weight and height.

Ms O’Dea’s findings were consistent with the cause of death in the postmortem carried out by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster.

Lemuna, aged two, was travelling from Frankfurt to the US with her family as part of a group of 24 Eritreans on a government-sponsored refugee programme. “I can only hope that Lemuna’s family have moved onto a new and better life in the United States as they endured tough times in Eritrea,” Ms O’Dea said.

Dr Bolster noted in her postmortem that there was no evidence of trauma. She was aware that Lemuna had been treated at hospital for coughing four days before her family’s departure to New York.

Dr Bolster found multiple parallel scars on various parts of Lemuna’s body and evidence of female circumcision. An emergency inquest last April was adjourned to yesterday to hear the medical evidence. It heard from Lemuna’s father, Armadan Osman Biddo (52) that she fell sick as he and his family crossed the mountains after fleeing their home which was destroyed. Mr Biddo said some of his family were killed and he, his wife and six children reached the US embassy in Addis Ababa where Lemuna was treated by a doctor.

After the emergency inquest, Mr Biddo was able to take Lumena’s body and bury her near the family’s new home in the US.