Coroner lifts restriction on details of suicide

Press, 26 August 1986, Page 28

Coroner lifts restriction on details of suicide

Details of a suicide in which a woman died after taking an overdose of anti-depressant tablets have been made public by the Christchurch Coroner, Mr A. N. Mac Lean.

The inquest was adjourned in July after the family of Gaylene Fay Ingram, aged 28, expressed concern that she was able to obtain sleeping pills while in a depressed state. Mrs Ingram died in Princess Margaret Hospital on May 10.

The Coroner asked the Christchurch police to make further inquiries after hearing the family’s concern at the inquest in July.

When the inquest resumed this week, Senior Constable J. A. W. Bennie told the Court that Mrs

Ingram had obtained a repeat prescription of about 100 nortriptylene tablets, an anti-depres-sant.

They were prescribed by Dr Janice Marilyn McKenzie, a senior lecturer in physiology at Christchurch Clinical School.

A “one only” repeat prescription was prescribed at the time, which was February 19, 1986.

Constable Bennie said that in an interview with the police Dr McKenzie said that she had seen Mrs Ingram in February. She was an out-patient and was depressed, but not suicidal. She had been treated in the past with nortriptylene, and had made definite improvements. Dr McKenzie said that

if the tablets had been taken according to the instructions they would have been finished by April 19. Mrs Ingram had trouble getting to Christchurch from her home in Kirwee and the repeat was prescribed for that reason, said Dr McKenzie. The doctor told the police that her inquiries had shown that a friend had taken the repeat prescription to Mrs Ingram in Princess Margaret Hospital.

Constable Bennie said that the police had also made inquiries at the Sumner Pharmacy, which had issued the repeat prescription to Mrs Ingram. A pharmacist, Jane Clare Paterson, said that the repeat prescription for nortriptylene was

filled on May 6. A pharmacy assistant, Angela Cockburn, told the police that she received a telephone call from Mrs Ingram on May 6. Mrs Ingram said that she lived at Kirwee and could not come to collect the prescription. She asked that it be sent to her mother’s address in Mount Pleasant. Miss Cockburn said that the prescription was mailed to the Mount Pleasant address, which was the normal method of sending a prescription if a person could not pick it up. Constable Bennie said that it was now obvious that after the tablets were posted to the address, they were taken to Mrs Ingram in hospital. The Coroner found that

Mrs Ingram committed suicide.

However, he said that he would take the unusual step of lifting the restriction on publication of details of a suicide.

The Coroner said he understood the concern of Mrs Ingram’s family that she was able to obtain the tablets while in a very depressed state.

He did not know of anything practicable that could have been done to stop her getting the tablets.

The Coroner said that he wanted to draw the attention of medical people and pharmacists to the case, as they might be able to suggest how similar occurrences could be avoided.