I’ve never heard of bedbugs killing someone.
Even if it happened few times, it's probably not something that anyone will hear about, that requires the person to be located and autopsied quick enough to tell.
It's impossible in anything even remotely close to normal circumstances, but it's undeniably not what this poor man had to endure.
Few years ago I rescued a cat, who ended up locked in the flea infested flat. Conditions were well... pretty similar to what's on the cell picture here. Everything locked, no other animals or humans inside. No food - he tore a small bag with cat food that was in there and drank all the water from the toilet as I noticed during later inspection. He was still standinf when I got in, but fell down unable to stand up or walk, or even make a sound in the matter of seconds.
I freaked out, grabbed him, called a cab and got to the vet as fast as we could and the vet literally told me that he must warn me that his chances are so low that it will be a waste of money cause:
- never in his life he saw so many fleas on a cat, and that he wouldn't believe that if he didn't saw it (thousands, like literally thousands, not exagerrated hundreds but piles and piles of fleas that he removed with some spray),
- those fleas almost drank all his blood out so he (the vet) cant even treat him cause he cant get enough to do any tests so my options were to pay for basic shots of things that could possibly help get the cat some strenght back, but will do nothing if he's also sick with something.
And that cat miraculously survived, but for days he mostly just lied next to me and breathed, looked like mummified cat, not actual cat, most of fur was gone, all covered in bite wounds.
I was covered in wounds from bites. I spend in that hellish place maybe five minutes tops, enough to grab the cat and check for any other
victims inside, and of course some got on me while I was carrying the cat to the vet, but the viciousness of those hungry fleas were nothing like any other fleas I ever encountered. And it was pretty normal for me to meet all sorts of flea infested flats, doghouses, barns, animals and so on. It's not even close, it's like another dimension.
Given that experience I can absolutely imagine Lashawn being eaten alive by bugs, but dear God I hope they're mistaken.
Don't underestimate the power of isolation.
Filthy, locked, isolated room.
With him being the only source of food/blood for the bugs, unable to escape them, unable to fight them. You have to sleep sometimes. Bugs don't, theyre attacking constantly, weaker their victim is, more they attack. Scratching just makes you weaker. If nobody bothered to let him out, possibly even fed him with some sedatives or drugs that made him sleepy, and possibly unable to understand why he feels so weak, why every part of his body hurts and itches simultaneously.
If he was indeed suffering from schisophrenia, then it could make him weaker in fight with the bugs.
If they sedated him, even for some time, and allowed these bugs to feast on his body, he could be weakened so much till he regained consciousness that he never really got back.
Perfectly healthy person would get insane while constantly bitten and unable to escape from more and more and more bites. If he was sick such torture likely triggered further lack of mental stability. If he wasn't, he could easily be turned crazy just by bugs. And if he was classified as schisophrenic by people who allowed THAT sort of living conditions, likely nobody cared about his screams, or even dismissed those who were (if someone heard his screams).
I don't know, cause I don't have this kind of knowledge, but I'd think that if someone gets trapped in a house/flat infested by bugs, and due to old age or sickness cant get out or seek help and gets preyed and preyed on by bunch of blood sucking bugs, then even if they will bite that person to death... then with weeks or months passing before the person is located, the decomposition will be so advanced that I doubt that autopsy could say that bugs caused it. Then it could possibly indicate the direct last straw, so something like heart faillure, and if it doesn't look like a murder then no reason to look for such detailed reasons, if filthy, bug infested house is already disturbing enough?
This is absolutely terrifying.
