11-21-2008, 01:03 AM
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Man with severe brain condition died after being locked in cell for being 'drunk'
Keith Mark Camm died of a brain condition after being held by police who thought he was drunk
Quote:
A man suffering from a brain haemorrhage was locked in a cell for 25 hours because police wrongly assumed he was drunk.
Mark Camm, 43, was then dumped in an A&E casualty department where his condition was not properly assessed for nine hours. He died 12 days later.
At the end of an inquest yesterday, Mr Camm's devastated family hit out at the 'culture of cost cutting' which led to his death.
They said in a statement: ' Everybody failed Mark whether they were police officers, doctors at the police station or doctors and nurses at the accident and emergency department who first saw him.
'Mark lost a chance of survival. But even if he was ultimately to die, we lost the chance to be with him while he was still conscious, to reassure him, to remind him of how much his family loved him.'
The inquest heard that Mr Camm, a window cleaner, could barely talk and was unsteady on his feet because of the neurological condition when he was detained by police at an off-licence on June 17 four years ago.
But instead of taking him to a hospital officers arrested him for being drunk and disorderly.
Camm was arrested and taken to Wakefield's Wood Street police station
He was assessed by a nurse who could not smell alcohol on his breath. Despite this he was slung in a cell at Wood Street police station in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, as officers made rude jokes about his mental well-being.
For the next 25 hours he did not move or speak, the inquest was told.
Officers should have checked on him every half hour, but did not enter his cell once to examine him or give him water, preferring to look through the grate of the door.
When police finally realised something was wrong they took him to Pinderfields Hospital in a police van. Later, officers falsified records of his incarceration.
At the hospital, 'confused' nursing staff placed him in a less urgent area of casualty because of a lack of space.
He was finally treated, and then transferred to Leeds General Infirmary where he died on June 29.
After a six-week hearing the jury returned a narrative verdict and criticised police and hospital staff.
The Crown Prosecution Service is expected to review the case, as is the General Medical Council after the coroner David Hinchliff called for an inquiry.
Mr Hinchliff also recommended that West Yorkshire Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison review custody procedures across the force.
Mr Camm's sisters, Michelle Chadwick and Mel Carlton, vowed to fight for justice.
The family said: 'As 25 hours ticked by, and Mark remained speechless in a cell, his chances of survival ebbed away.'
Camm's sisters Mel Carlton (left) and Michelle Chadwick (right), stand next to their solicitor Ruth Bundey, on the steps of Wakefield Town Hall
West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff said he was recommending that West Yorkshire Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison should review custody procedures across the force.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police apologised to the family and said the medical advice given to officers when Mr Camm was first detained was 'insufficient'.
An investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission made a series of recommendations in relation to custody practices and training which have since been adopted by the force, he said.
The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust which is responsible for Pinderfields Hospital also apologised to the family and said important lessons had been learned.
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Source: Man with severe brain condition died after being locked in cell for being 'drunk' | Mail Online
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