The head of the hospital shift, Augusto Manuel, in a statement to the Angolan Public Television (TPA), made it known that the demonstrator Inocêncio de Matos died due to an irreversible respiratory arrest that resulted from brain trauma.
At the age of 26, Inocêncio de Matos was admitted to hospital during Wednesday afternoon, where he received medical assistance. Upon arrival at the hospital the young man presented an exposed fracture with sinking of the skull bones. "The young man presented an injury caused by a blunt object," said the doctor, causing a trauma to his head, "with active bleeding and exposure of the brain mass.
The patient was promptly treated by the team, stabilized by a multidisciplinary team, and several complementary tests were performed before undergoing surgery.
"We came to the conclusion that it was an exposed fracture, with sinking of the skull bones, in which there was, besides the bleeding, by vascular lesion, the exit of the brain mass", he informed.
According to Augusto Manuel, the young man was promptly taken to the operating room, in an unconscious state, but after the procedures he died after four hours.
"The patient who already had a bad prognosis, either at the entrance of the emergency room or the operating room, the prognosis was already very bad, he ended up dying due to irreversible cardiorespiratory arrest and we only had to confirm the death four hours after the surgery", he stressed.
The doctor removed the version of having been hit by a firearm shot, as was initially advanced by fellow demonstrators.
"No, a blunt object, we're probably talking about a stick, a piece of metal, thick, big, an iron, which causes that kind of injury, we could easily see by the kind of wound it had, that kind of fracture, besides that it was submitted to a cranioencephalic scan that didn't show any foreign body", he explained.
On Wednesday night, Eduardo Cerqueira, commander of the National Police, revealed that the citizen had been taken to the Américo Boavida hospital, denying that he had died during the clashes.
However, the doctor's statements did not specify if it was the same person reported by the authorities, he wrote to Angop.
