A PRISONER died of a heart attack after life-saving defibrillators were locked in a cupboard at night, a sheriff has ruled.
Derek Adam, 44, died in September 2013 after collapsing in his cell at Glenochil Prison in Clackmannanshire.
The convicted sex offender was serving a nine-year sentence after admitting abusing three young girls.
A fatal accident inquiry at Alloa Sheriff Court heard there were no automated external defibrillators (AEDs) available to prison officers on the night Mr Adam fell ill and staff did not know how to use them in any case.
The court heard the defibrillators, which deliver a high energy shock to the heart, were locked up in the nurses’ office overnight and could not be accessed by nightshift staff.
In a written determination, Sheriff Simon Collins QC criticised the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) for failings over the death and said the “idiot-proof” devices could have saved the inmate’s life.
Mr Collins said: “I conclude that the provision of readily accessible defibrillators in Glenochil, coupled with training of nightshift prison officers in relation to when and how to use them, were precautions whereby Mr Adam’s death might have been avoided.
“Had the prison officers been able to defibrillate Mr Adam at around 1.55am I am satisfied that there is a serious possibility that his death might have been avoided.
“I cannot avoid recognising the grim absurdity of locating a defibrillator in the prison, but then locking it in a cupboard at night.
“Such a practice encourages the cynic to ask, rhetorically, whether it was decided that prisoners should only have heart attacks during the day?
“If criticism is due, it is not of the prison officers but of the training – or lack of it – which SPS had given them."
He said prison bosses should include further training on the use of defibrillators.
He added: “As for provision of AEDs, I am satisfied on the evidence that these are mass produced and relatively cheap items, now found in many public places and employment premises.
“I am satisfied that they could reasonably be placed in prisons at such locations and in such numbers that with reasonable haste one could be retrieved and brought to any prisoner’s cell within around five minutes of becoming aware of the need to use it.”
Prison officers performed CPR on Mr Adam but he could not be revived. Paramedics arrived and he was pronounced dead on arrival at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.
The sheriff also criticised the SPS policy, introduced in 2011, to not have medical staff on site at prisons during the night.
He added: “I cannot resist recording my view that the underlying policy objective identified, namely that emergency health care for prisoners overnight should replicate the position of non-prisoners in the community, is of questionable validity.
“Put simply, it seems to me that the position of prisoners and non-prisoners is not properly comparable in this context.
“A person in the community does not have to wait for an ambulance. They can go themselves to the hospital if they wish. And in any event, a decision to call the ambulance is theirs alone.
“For a prisoner, by contrast, the decision to call the ambulance is not his, but that of the prison officer.
“If the officer does not call an ambulance, because for example he fails to recognise the severity of the prisoner’s condition, the prisoner cannot take then himself to the hospital. And even the time which it takes for the ambulance to reach the prisoner and non-prisoner may be different.”
The court heard that since Mr Adam’s death, prison officers were now given training in the use of defibrillators which had been installed at jails.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Prison Service said: "The SPS conduct a review of all deaths in custody to ensure that any lessons are learned promptly and any actions that require to be taken are taken .
"We would again wish to express our condolences to the family."
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