Calif. school shaken over 10-year-old girl's death

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Ten-year-old Joanna Ramos died from blunt force trauma after emergency surgery for a blood clot on her brain, investigators and family members said.

As far as police can tell, the blow did not come from a weapon, or a wall, or a windshield, but only the fists of another young girl whom she fought hours earlier.

While the specific circumstances of Joanna's death are especially tragic and extremely unusual, medical experts said a blow in just the right spot can often prove fatal.

"This is rare, in that I've never seen it in a female, certainly not in a female adolescent," said Dr. Keith Black, a neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Black, who was not involved in Joanna's medical care, sees such injuries all the time among older patients and said a blow to the head from one young girl to another could "absolutely" be sufficient to cause enough trauma to lead to death.