More on inquests

On the issue of inquests and connected to my previous post, I have been meaning to write about this for some time. The Coroners Bill was expected to reform the inquest process but the Bill was not mentioned in the Queen’s speech and has seemingly been designated to the back of the legislative queue.

The startling reality of the current legislation is that deaths in the psychiatric system don’t have to be fully investigated unlike deaths in prisons and police custody where there is a legal duty to investigate with a jury. So deaths in the psychiatric system don’t have the same legal standards applied and this is a terrible injustice. It really does smack of discrimination and inequality.

It has been reported that 340 people died under section last year, though unsurprising the figure could be higher as some deaths in psychiatric “care” are not reported.

I remember meeting, some years ago, a couple whose son committed suicide while on, ironically, suicide watch in a pysychiatric hospital. This grieving couple were desperately trying to find out how and why their son died. Yet they were stonewalled by the bureaucracy and rigmarole of the hospital at every turn (such as notes being “lost”). Their fight for the truth was an uphill struggle.

A similar case of neglect and failure in the duty of care is of Sandra Allen who died because of choking on a sandwich while being left alone. The coroner concluded that she died of natural causes, her family are challening the decision. They say that the coroner was wrong to reject their request for a broader inquiry that would have looked at duty of care their mother received and seen her death in context. 

“Mrs Allen, 61, died from a heart attack after choking on a sandwich she had been left to eat unattended: she had no dentures and a long history of choking. Staff failed to clear her airways and were unable to operate an oxygen canister. She was still choking when the ambulance arrived. It had waited for several minutes outside the unit because the security guard was asleep”.

Finally, in a sad and poignant way, it also reminds me of my friend Lynne, I knew her nearly 20 years ago. We were both in the same hospital and were same age. We both had a lot in common and kinda related to each other. But the difference is that I am alive yet she is dead. She was suffering with terrible stomach pains but the shrink said it was “all in her head” (cos you know, being mentally distressed we don’t know the difference between the real and imagined…apparently).

 So they did nothing. She collapsed, was rushed to hospital where they opened her up and discovered she had a gangrenous bowel. She died on the operating table. She must have been in terrible agony but none of the staff believed her (other mental health users did believe her). None of this came out in the inquest, the neglect of care and failure in the duty of care. It was all neatly wrapped up and issues about accountability and responsibilty were conveniently left out and brushed aside.

Lynne never received justice even in death and countless other people who die in the care of the state receive the same dismissive treatment. Your life and death isn’t worth fully investigating, it is like you are a non-person, your rights don’t exist….