Mentally ill man cuffed, then dies
16.04.2010
By: TONY KOCH
A MENTALLY ill father of three was handcuffed by police in a north Queensland hospital before suffering respiratory failure that claimed his life yesterday.
Police Ethical Standards officers were due to meet today with the family of Townsville man Lyji Vaggs, 27, who went voluntarily to the local public hospital's mental health unit several times on Wednesday seeking to be admitted. He was told by hospital staff there were no beds available and that he should go home and take his medication.
Family members said yesterday that Mr Vaggs, a nephew of Aboriginal academic and activist Gracelyn Smallwood, had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and that he told hospital staff he needed help because he was ``hearing voices''.
It is understood Mr Vaggs became ``boisterous'', was forcibly restrained by security staff and police were called. He was handcuffed and injected with anti-psychotic drugs, at which point he stopped breathing.
Associate Professor Smallwood has been asked to speak on behalf of the family. She will attend today's meeting with police.
The Australian understands the police officers who responded to the call for assistance were involved in only a minor way with restraining Mr Vaggs, but did handcuff him.
``We were told several of the mental health orderlies and security staff held him down and sat on Lyji until the police came, and when he was needled he stopped breathing,'' a family member said. ``A mental health doctor later came out to a roomful of us who were waiting and said he could not figure out what caused Lyji to stop breathing, but it was probably when they restrained him.''
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Professor Smallwood said last night she was unable to comment on her nephew's death because she had not been told all the details, but she would be asking why police were called when there were enough orderlies to handle the situation.
Professor Smallwood is Australia's most senior indigenous nurse, with 42 years' experience, and is employed at the Townsville hospital.
"If we are going to close the gap, as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd suggests, places like Townsville with a large black population need 24-hour Aboriginal health workers at the hospital," she said.
"This boy was like my own son.
He did not need to die.He was calling out for help.Now his wife Stacey is left with three little boys -and we all want to know why."
Professor Smallwood is one of the nation's most respected indigenous spokespeople and has a history of speaking out against injustice to her people.
In 2000, she successfully sued the Queensland Police Service after she was arrested, handcuffed and thrown into the back of a police van and driven to a watchhouse, where she was strip-searched.When a police officer searched her handbag and found her security pass to the university stating she was an associate professor, he asked where she stole the handbag.
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