Restraint autopsy yields no clues
23.04.2010
By: TONY KOCH
FURTHER tests will be required to determine the cause of death of a mentally ill father of three who died after being restrained by hospital security staff and police in north Queensland.
Lyji Vaggs's family revealed yesterday an independent autopsy had failed to conclusively establish why he died on April 15, a day after a confrontation with hospital staff and police in which he was handcuffed, and said they had agreed to allow some organs to be retained for further tests.
Mr Vaggs, 27, had been seeking treatment for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia when he was told there was no room for him
in Townsville Hospital's acute mental health unit and reacted angrily.
According to his family, some of the six hospital security men and orderlies who responded to an alarm sat or lay upon the young man, who was handcuffed when police arrived.
He suffered respiratory failure after being sedated by doctors, and was taken off life support the following day, having suffered massive and irreversible brain damage.
The results of toxicity tests and other scans conducted last Sunday in Cairns during the independent autopsy, requested by the family, will not be available for another fortnight.
The solicitor acting for Mr Vaggs's family, Steve Kerin, said yesterday the state coroner had requested permission from the family for doctors to keep the deceased man's brain for further examination, and that had been allowed.
His funeral service has been put off until May 7 to allow all testing to be completed.
Mr Kerin said a toxicity report had not been completed either but the family was satisfied with the way Coroner Michael Barnes was handling issues.
``Mr Barnes has taken significant steps to ensure impartiality and objectivity, and the family are very grateful for that,'' Mr Kerin said.
``The police assisting him are from the Ethical Standards Unit and the Crime and Misconduct Commission in Brisbane.''
The family's spokeswoman, Aboriginal academic Gracelyn Smallwood, said no questions had yet been answered in relation to the death of her nephew.
Smallwood says that Mr Vaggs had been refused admission twice in the week leading up to the deadly confrontation at hospital, and was told instead to go home and take his medication.
His wife, Stacey, and their three boys had accompanied him to the hospital on April 14.
But a short time later, Stacey received a call asking her to come immediately to the intensive care unit. She was told he was brain-dead and was on life-support.
She and her family say they were later told by a senior medical official at the hospital that it was thought he had suffered the fatal injury when he had been ``restrained'' by staff and police
