Friday, August 13, 2010 Film series coming to the ACT.
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ary Annivers 1985-2010
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MARKET ❚ Tool Time
Elmer Jimmy, a Coast Salish artist, carves the image of a hawk at his booth in the Osprey Village Farmers’ Market on Sunday. Jimmy, a carver of seven years, said the finished product would take about an hour to complete, and could be used as a necklace or car ornament. The Haney Farmers’ Market will be at Brookfield Farm this Saturday and the Osprey Village Farmers’ Market will feature a dog theme. See a wrap-up of events on Page 18. Mitch Thompson/TIMES
Police thought injured man just drunk by Amy Steele asteele@mrtimes.com
Fifty-five-year-old Ian Young didn’t receive medical treatment for a brain injury before being taken to the Ridge Meadows RCMP drunk tank cell and he lay for several hours in one position before he was found unresponsive on the morning of October 18, 2008. His cellmate testified there was a pool of clear liquid around his head when he was found. The inquest into Young’s death has highlighted a range of issues such as the lack of detox facilities in the Maple Ridge area, the treatment of people with alcohol problems by police, whether paramedics have the medical expertise to clear prisoners for police cells, and whether jury recommendations from other inquests where people died in similar circumstances in RCMP cells have been implemented by police. The inquest heard that Young had been
drinking at By Baileys Pub in Hammond and told friends he was walking home. Adam Tuck testified at the inquest that he was coming home from work when he saw a man laying on his back half on the sidewalk and half on the road so he pulled over to help. Tuck said Young answered his questions in broken sentences and mentioned something about having smacked his head on pavement. “Anything I asked him it took two or three seconds before an answer came,” said Tuck. “It seemed like an odd way of responding.” Tuck called an ambulance. Paramedics arrived and he saw them sit Young up, drag him to the back of the ambulance and sit him on the bumper. Tuck said he could see a wound on the back of Young’s head that was “slightly larger than a toonie” and it was wet. He said he mentioned it to the paramedics. Tuck said Young was “very limp” when being moved by paramedics. Tuck’s 911 call was played and in the call Tuck told the operator that Young may
have banged his head and described him as “conscious but sort of barely.” Paramedic Ross Chute said when he first saw Young he was “supine” on the road and sidewalk and smelled of beer. When he examined him he found a small abrasion on his head. Chute said he asked Young three times if he wanted to go to the hospital and each time he refused and eventually signed a form to that effect. Chute admitted that Young’s legs “would buckle” as they tried to stand him up from the bumper of the ambulance and get him to the police car and that Young vomited while in the police cruiser. He said he told the police officer that they’d found a small abrasion on his head but Young was refusing to go to the hospital. Chute said he told the police officer that police needed to observe him and phone the ambulance service back if his condition changed. Eliana Tomescu, who was going on a ridea-long in the ambulance that night because
she was interested in becoming a paramedic at the time, said she noticed that the back of Young’s head looked wet from blood and she could smell alcohol. She said paramedics had “great, great difficulty” getting him into the police car and she said Young was “like a puppet” and “very disoriented.” She said she heard the paramedics ask him “numerous times” if he wanted to go to the hospital and he refused. Another paramedic, Ronald Henderson, said he told the police officer who arrived on the scene, Jodi Lymburner, that Young needed to be monitored and to call the ambulance for reassessment if necessary. Henderson said paramedics are “not physicians” and can’t clear people for RCMP cells. He said paramedics “gather information and pass it on to the hospital” and physicians make the determination. See INQUEST, Page 5
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