Drug overdose alleged

Press, 2 June 1982, Page 1

Drug overdose alleged

PA Auckland Counsel for the family of a man w’ho died at Oakley Hospital in February said at an inquest yesterday that the patient was given three times the recommended dose of a hypnotic drug four days before he died. Michael Percy Watene, aged 25, died in'one of the hospital strongrooms on February 22 about 20 minutes after having electro-convul-sive therapy (E.C.T.) for the fourth time. The Coroner, Mr A. D. Copeland, adjourned the inquest yesterday after seven of the 10 police witnesses had given evidence. The hearing will resume today. Mr D. S. Morris appeared for the Auckland Hospital Board and Mr Rodney Harrison for the Auckland Council of Civil Liberties.

The police felt there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the man's death, which occurred five days after he had been transferred from Mount Eden Prison.

Constable A. B. Williams told the hearing that Watene had been serving seven days imprisonment after his conviction on a charge of offensive behaviour. While at Mount Eden Prison, he barricaded himself in a cell, feeling he was going to be attacked by other inmates. After being transferred to Oakley, the hearing later heard, Watene was uncommunicative, hostile, and had the potential to' be "dangerously violent.” Under cross-examination: by Mrs Lorraine Smith, for Watene’s family, an Oakley doctor said he had heard a rumour that Watene had once beaten up a nurse’s son. However, the witness, Dr D. A. Purdie, said he knew nothing about a suggestion that a staff member was out to “get” Watene. The death, he told the hearing, had been “absolutely unexpected.” Dr Purdie said he considered Watene potentially dangerous and impulsive when he first examined him.

In one struggle a nurse had been struck on the bridge of the nose by a pot full of urine and in another incident a staff member had broken a finger. Mrs Smith said one of her witnesses would tell the hearing that nurses and aides kicked’and punched Watene, which was how the staff member broke a finger. She told Dr Purdie that a narcotics register and nursing notes showed discrepancies in the amount of paraldehyde. a hypnotic drug, administered to Watene. i A witness, would later say that four doses of 20ml were given on the afternoon and evening of February 17 and a further 10ml of the drug was given the next morning However, nursing notes indicated only 20ml administered during the whole treatment. Dr Purdie said only the most important events relating to the patient as he progressed through a 24-hour period were recorded in the nursing notes. Mrs Smith said that one

defence witness had copied notes showing the drug dosages and locked them in a Queen Street bank vault. Mr Morris, for the Hospital Board, described this matter as “gravely serious,” as it suggested that hospital notes had been falsified. Dr Peter Needham,, a specialist psychiatrist at Oakley at the time of Watene’s death, told the hearing that the deceased had the potential to be dangerously violent when he arrived at Oakley. He had been carrying a knife and had behaved in a hostile manner. Accordingly, E.C.T., known as shock treatment, and a course of tranquillisers and sedatives, was started on February 17.

During cross-examination-Mrs Smith said to Dr Needham. that , one of.,her witnesses would say Watene had received 90ml of paraldehyde within 16 hours. > According to the pharmacologist's guide. Martindale's, she said a patient should receive 3ml to 30ml in 24 hours. 7 -.. . y Dr Needham said the toxic effect of the drug was that it could cause kidney failure and it was possible that kidney failure could cause dehydration. ". ' ■' i "

E.C.T., an. “effective and accepted" treatment, was used in the unmodified form, meaning without a-- muscle relaxant or anaesthetic, twice on February 17 and ...again the next day, ' On’February 19. Dr Needham told the. hearing. Watene appeared to be more cooperative. but- was still uncommunicative.. The shock treatment was . used again on the morning of February 22. About 20 minutes later Watene died. "An examination showed no apparent cause of death." - said Dr Needham. During' shock treatment

j about 140 volts were going ; s through Watene’s brain, he , said, which was an-accepted" ;. practice when intensive , treatment was necessary. 1 Cross-examined,.Dr Purdie said pharmacology books printed drug dosagipsw as ’ guidelines and that ’ most: k doses could be taken beyond ' the stated limits. Mr Harrison: Do you.-ac-cept that a combination of s paraldehyde in those if amounts’ and. unmodified 0 E.C.T. would have a seriously debilitating effect on d his (Watene’s) physical condi- ” .tion? . t .■ . , , ■' Dr Purdie: Ido not accept it "hit