A Brooklyn doctor who treated Nixzmary Brown for a cut over her eye just six weeks before she died, bloodied and malnourished, admitted yesterday that it did not make him suspicious enough to check for other more serious injuries.
Any doctor who suspects a child is being abused, or sees signs indicating that abuse is taking place, is required by law to notify officials.
But Dr. Michael Abbey-Mensah, a doctor at Woodhull Hospital’s emergency room said he stitched up the cut on Nov. 29, 2005, but couldn’t say if he did more.
“Did you personally examine the body of Nixzmary Brown from head to toe?” prosecutor Linda Weinman asked.
“I don’t recall,” he said.
Abbey-Mensah said he’d been told by Nixzmary’s stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, who is on trial for the January 2006 murder, that the girl had fallen while playing, conceding he did not take the matter further.
Under questioning by defense lawyer Jeffrey Schwartz, the doctor admitted that the official hospital records from the visit say, “No other bruises present.”