Autopsy
Autopsy results showed that he had been suffering from a massive infection in the lining of his lungs, one of which was partially collapsed. His abdomen was distended with more than two and a half quarts of pus from a virulent hybrid infection of staphylococcus and streptococcus, probably caused at least in part by having had to do pushups over raw waste. His lungs also held fluid that according to one official inquiry was probably inhaled vomitus. His body was covered with seventy-one cuts and bruises and there was blood in his stomach. However, the official cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Another autopsy by a forensic pathologist showed that the boy had been manhandled causing bruising, abrasions, scratches and minor puncture wounds to the head and body.
Although the infection would have taken weeks to develop, Linda Babb, the nurse employed at the facility, claimed there had been no sign of an infection and denied any responsibility for the boy's condition, but admitted she had only once taken his temperature and listened to his lungs, which occurred one week prior to his death. She said that on the day he died, "basically he was fine, and it's not like he never had the opportunity to tell somebody". She claimed that Contreraz had not complained in her presence, and that she believed the mass in his chest was contained and therefore would not have been obvious until the point when it would have burst. However, autopsies showed no sign of rupture. Babb claimed that Contreraz never showed any outward symptoms of illness.
Read more about this topic: Nicholaus Contreraz