Updated: 1/16/07
Page 2: A Shocking Tragedy
Linda
died on February 11, 2000 in
A former college soccer standout and an active, energetic mother of four, Linda was the picture of radiant health. Both Linda’s family physician and the obstetrician who delivered her four babies attest to Linda’s excellent health at the time of her death.
Ominous warnings precede Linda’s death.
Linda
warns friends and family that if anything happens to her, they should check it
out closely and be suspicious of Mark. Then, just three weeks before her
death, Linda, confiding in friends, expresses fear for her life. Click to
read Friends’ Affidavits She talks about frequent trips to her
sister’s house in
The marital discord includes accusations of infidelity. Linda complains that her husband is having her followed. Linda goes to her in-laws seeking help and tells them about Mark's raging temper and that he is having her followed. Linda also confides to Mark's parents that she is scared of Mark. Linda seeks help from her family physician, who arranges counseling intervention to help Linda with her home life circumstances. The family physician calls Mark and advises him to see someone professionally as well. The psychologist counsels both Linda and her husband individually and jointly. Linda tells her family that their psychologist warned her that Mark is a danger to her and the children, and, if she divorces Mark, he will testify that Mark should have only supervised visits.
After her death, Linda’s friends tell her parents about Linda’s warnings to them. Written documents clearly state that Linda warned her friends that her husband is “like O.J. Simpson and that if anything ever happened to her they should suspect him...Only the children and I know what he is like at home." Click to read
February 10th, The Day Before She Died, Linda's routine was normal. When a
worker comes to the house in the morning, Mark's mother, Vi
Adanalian, answers the door and lets him into Linda's
home. Linda is not home at that time. The worker reports that when Linda comes
home she is in great spirits, full of energy, in-and-out of the house caring
for and playing with the children. Linda is at the beauty salon that day
in her usual good spirits, making no claims of feeling ill. Linda is at a
friend's home in the early evening hours where, according to her friends, she
appears and acts like she feels fine. Linda talks with her parents for
approximately 40 minutes that same evening and is upbeat and excited for Kiley's birthday dinner that night.
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Linda's four children Kyra, Dominick, |
She
makes no complaints of not feeling well. That evening she takes her four
children to Applebees' restaurant located on
The Day Of Her Death, Linda suffers diarrhea, nausea, and
vomiting. The same worker who was at the house
the day before, arrives in the early morning hours for a second day of
housework. When Linda answers the door she looks "completely wiped
out." She tells the worker she doesn’t feel well, that she feels
like she has a stomach flu, and she needs to lie down
in her bedroom. She asks the worker if he can keep an eye on her son
while he works, and he says, "yes." Linda
goes into her bedroom and comes out only three or four times during the
day. Each time she comes out of her room she looks worse. The last
time she comes out of her bedroom, she “looks terrible” and is walking with
“baby steps.” As the worker leaves for the day, Mark's mother has just
arrived and is talking to Linda in the kitchen.
Click to read Affidavit
Linda and a friend, Lesa Paboojian, had previously purchased tickets for a children's Disney ice show. At approximately 5:00 p.m., Lesa calls Linda to see if they are going to meet for dinner before the show. Linda tells Lesa how "rotten" she feels, but that she will try to meet her at the show. Linda complains of her flu-like symptoms.
Linda arrives at the ice show approximately 40 minutes late. The show ends a short time later. Outside Selland Arena, Lesa tells Linda she is going to buy a program. Linda says she is going to start walking toward the parking lot. As Linda crosses the street on the way to her car, she picks up her two year old and tells her three other children to hurry along as it’s raining. After crossing the street, Linda sits down on some church steps and tells her children to yell for help.
About two minutes later, Lesa approaches the church where Linda is seated on the steps. Linda’s children are screaming frantically for help. Lesa hurries to Linda and the following conversation allegedly ensues:
· "What's wrong Linda?"
· "I don't feel good"
· "Why?"
· "I can't breath, and I'm going to pass out."
· "Are you dizzy?"
· "No, my chest hurts" Linda then put her hand directly over her heart.”
· "You'll be O.K. Linda"
· "I'm going to pass out"
Linda
passes out. Then she jerks, wakes, and immediately asks, "Where are the
kids?"
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A Passerby Stops To Help after observing a group of children standing in the rain crying. Upon arriving, he finds Linda sitting with her back against the church steps. She is breathing with long slow respirations. He asks if she is having trouble breathing and Linda says "yes." Within about five minutes she starts to lose consciousness. He can’t get a radial pulse, but he can feel a faint pulse in her carotid. Linda is drifting in-and-out of consciousness. He lays her back and supports her airway. Linda's wrists curl inward and she starts into a fetal, contorted position. Linda has two gag reflexes and appears like she is going to vomit. She convulses and seizes again and a police officer instructs that she be turned on her side. Linda gasps for air. Linda becomes weak and limp. Linda is moaning a bit and becoming agitated. According to the passerby, who worked for many years in an emergency room, Linda did not present like a cardiac patient.
The Fresno Fire Department Responds to the 911 call. Firefighters are the first responders to arrive at the scene. The Captain, a trained paramedic, talks with Linda upon arriving. Linda appropriately answers all of his questions. According to the firefighter, Linda presented with a “weird combination of complaints.”
Linda's presenting symptoms are confusing and the firefighter cannot classify her as either a cardiac or a respiratory patient.
The Captain specifically recollects looking at the EKG strip and it is a normal sinus rhythm (heart is beating in a healthy pattern). Linda presents like she is in shock, but she is still able to communicate. Frightened, Linda reaches out and grabs the Captain's arm, saying, “I’m scared, what’s wrong with me”?
After returning to the firehouse, the firefighter studies his medical literature to try to figure out this very unusual call.
American Ambulance Arrives On The Scene. In the ambulance her vitals are essentially normal, but they cannot get a blood pressure reading. Linda's symptoms are not consistent with a cardiac case.
Linda Arrives At The
The Emergency Room
nurse meets the ambulance as it arrives. Linda is fighting for breath as the
ambulance doors open. She is agitated,
flailing a bit, and struggling for air. Linda’s
heart is in normal sinus rhythm, and she is "alert x 3." Coherent and able to communicate despite her
agitated state, Linda tells the nurse that she was at the ice capades with her four children. Initial analysis
reveals blood in her stool and a high blood sugar level.
Linda talks with the medical staff, telling them that she has not taken any medications, drugs, or alcohol. She denies any illness over the previous few days, except for nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and weakness that day.
· Linda denies any chest pain while in the ER.
· Linda complains of weakness and numbness in her lower extremities.
· Linda's skin is mottled, gray, and blotchy.
· The ER doctor responds immediately.
· Linda begins to lose her respiratory effort. Unable to get her breath, she gasps for air as she tries to talk.
· Linda is frantic, but able to communicate with the ER doctor.
· Terrified, Linda tells the ER nurse, “I’m dying.” The nurse assures Linda that she will be fine.
· Unable to sufficiently breathe on her own, the medical staff begins “bagging” her.
· Then she suffers complete pulmonary arrest and the medical staff intubates her.
· When she’s intubated, pink froth comes back up into the tube (pulmonary edema).
· Linda then suffers cardio-pulmonary arrest, meaning that her heart and breathing stop.
· The medical staff begins CPR.
· The ER team tries heroically to save her for the next 60 minutes.
· Linda does not respond to appropriate treatment.
· She is pronounced dead at 11:44 p.m.
· The firefighters, paramedics, ER nurse, and ER doctor all state that Linda's presentation and course were very unusual.
· At 4:30 a.m. Linda's parents arrive at the hospital ER. The ER staff tells them that Linda suffered a "major catastrophic event" that will be readily apparent on autopsy.
The ER staff is shaken by Linda’s death. Young and seemingly healthy, they cannot believe they lost her. The ER staff says that Linda fought hard to stay with them – they cannot remember the last patient with such a will to live.
Medical Reviews of the Emergency Room Records determine that Linda received excellent medical care. Every appropriate medication and treatment was utilized. But, Linda did not respond for reasons discovered only after her remains were exhumed.
After She Is Pronounced Dead, the Emergency Room Doctor tells the husband and his friend, Warren Paboojian, that he does not know why Linda died, but that her heart essentially quit pumping and it appears that she suffered a myocardial infarction (heart attack). When the doctor asks Mark if Linda had any previous symptoms, Mark responds in the negative. But after viewing Linda, approximately 30 minutes later, Mark approaches the Emergency Room Doctor and tells him that he now remembers Linda “was complaining of chest pain for the last 2 - 3 days and with radiation down the left arm.” The doctor writes this in Linda’s medical records.
The doctor then calls Linda’s family physician at home at approximately midnight and discusses Linda’s death with him. The Emergency Room Doctor calls the Coroner’s office and asks them to look into Linda’s death. Linda’s family physician asks the County’s Chief Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Venu Gopal, to test for toxins.
At approximately 4:00 a.m. on
February 12, almost 4-1/2 hours after Linda’s death, Meg Bakich,
Linda’s sister, talks with her brother-in-law by telephone. He tells Meg
that Linda was complaining about chest and left radiating arm pain for the
past few days and that he told Linda she was having “red flag symptoms for a
heart attack.” Mark explains that he told Linda to go to the doctor, and
when she refused, they argued about it. He continues, “You know how your
sister was, she wouldn’t listen to me.”
In the following days Linda’s husband repeatedly explains to people that he argued with Linda two to three days before her death because she refused to go to the doctor to have her “chest and left radiating arm pain” checked out. Mark further asserts that Linda was sick for the past week. He claims that the week before her death, Linda looked ill, stating, “I would get home late from work and Linda would be in bed already asleep, and she looked like she did at the viewing.”
But the medical and historical evidence refute these claims. The autopsy reveals a healthy heart that shows nothing to support a cardiac problem. Two to three days before her death, Linda was vibrant and active, making no such complaints to anyone. Moreover, Linda made no mention of previous chest or left arm pain to the firefighter, paramedic, or the emergency room personnel who talked with her as they heroically worked to save her. In fact, they report that Linda was doing her best to help them help her. When asked about prior symptoms or illness, Linda spoke only of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea that day.
All content contained herein is based upon factual records and/or verifiable information