Province responding to Hyde inquiry
Posted May 12, 2011 05:02:29 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nova Scotia’s Health and Justice Ministers are expected to respond today to the numerous recommendations made following an 11-month-long inquiry into the jailhouse death of a mentally-ill man.
Judge Anne Derrick made 80 recommendations in December, calling for bureaucratic changes to both departments when handling mentally-ill people.
The inquiry heard how Howard Hyde had been arrested and detained after a domestic dispute in November 2007, and that police were informed he had been treated for schizophrenia but had not been taking his medication.
The 45-year-old Dartmouth man became agitated when a guard tried to cut the drawstring from his pants with a knife. Hyde tried to overpower guards to escape during booking.
He was restrained by several guards and tasered up to five times.
When his is heart stopped, he was resuscitated and treated in hospital. He was later released, without an assessment and without medication, and died in his cell 30 hours after the tasing incident.
The medical examiner originally ruled the death as “excited delirium,” pointing to Hyde’s increased strength, paranoia, suddenly violent behaviour, profuse sweating and elevated heart rate, which were exhibited during his struggle with guards.
Judge Derrick concluded the death was accidental, discounting excited delirium and the repeated tasering.
She said the restraint method used by guards made it difficult for Hyde to breathe and may have played a role in his death.
But she recommended stun guns not be used to immobilize emotionally-disturbed people unless crisis management techniques have failed.
