ASSUMED TO BE DRUNK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21102, 12 August 1930, Page 7

ASSUMED TO BE DRUNK.

MAN PUT OUT OF A HOSPITAL. FRACTURED SKULL DISCOVERED. LONDpN POLICE PROCEDURE, . How a man with a fractured skull, who, was assumed to be drunk, could not, under police regulations, be taken*'from inside' a hospital, and was put into the street, was-described at an inquest at Islington. London, recently. ' The -man was Ernest' George Vinajl, aged 55, It was stated, that on a Saturday night he left a public house at Islington, staggered across the road, threw up his arms, and fell on a motor car. Dr W. Simonds, of the Royal Northern Hospital, said that when Vinall was'taken there he came to the conclusion that he was under the influence" of drink. When he telephoned to the police he was told /that the man, if drunk, could not. be taken from inside the 'hospital. He, therefore, ordered Vinall’s removal to the street pending the arrival of the police. . Sub-Divisional Inspector Ralph, agreed with Dr Simonds ns to- the procedure for removing a drunken .man from hospital. “He must be placed in the public highway,” said the inspector, “ before he can be turned over to the police. Otherwise he would have to be seen by a doctor and taken to the infirmary.” The coroner; Must he be taken out into the street? Couldn’t he bo taken from the.door of the hospital? Inspector Ralph; Our instructions on the point ore very clear. That is the position, and I don’t see how it can be got over. If he were violent the conditions would be entirely different, but he was not. The widow (interjecting): He must be treated like a dog—that is ‘what it amounts to. Dr Simonds further stated that Vinall, when admitted, had a half-filled whisky flask in his pocket! He called the man’s wife, who did not wish to have him home. Constable Smith said that when he was called to the hospital at 2 a.m. he found Vinall lying unconscious on the pavement. Vinall was taken to the police station, and in consequence of an examination by the divisional surgeon an ambulance was immediately called and Vinall was taken back to the hospital. Dr Thomas Pearce, resident medical officer at the hospital, said that when Vinall was readmitted he was bleeding. They were uncertain wli'at had caused the bleeding, but gave treatment for cerebral haemorrhage. Dr Thomas Rose, pathologist, who made the post-mortem examination, said that death was due to a fractured skull. The injury would be very difficult to detect. “ Usually,” he said. “ there is bleeding as an indication, but this particular fracture passed all the points where it could haw effected bleeding.” The coroner Sir Walter Schroder: If tl)is man had been kept in hospital instead of being sent out, could his life, in your opinion, have been saved? Dr Rose: No, sir. It could have made no difference to the ultimate issue of the Dr Simonds, recalled, said that when the man came back from the police station his condition had changed.. The coroner, summing up, remarked: “ When placed in a public institution a patient expects to receive every attention and care from the officers of that institution. In the present case, the doctor kept the man under observation-for two hours and came to the conclusion that hia condition was due to alcohol. It is an opinion formed after some two hours, and I am sure that the man was properly assisted outside.” The jury, in returning a verdict of accidental death, added a rider that the man should not have been sent from the hospital and that the hospital should exercise • more care in future.