A man who died in a Garda cell would have died even if he had been in hospital because of the fatal level of an anti-epilepsy drug in his system, Dublin City Coroner's Court heard yesterday.
Mr Peter Williams (33), originally from Littleton, Thurles, was pronounced dead on admission to St James's Hospital early last September 8th.
He was found in a collapsed state in a cell at Kilmainham Garda station at 3.20 a.m. that morning.
A post-mortem examination by the State Pathologist, Prof John Harbison, showed that he died of an overdose of phenobarbitone, the drug prescribed to control his epilepsy. No alcohol was found in his blood or urine.
The inquest was told that Mr Williams, who appeared to have been living rough in Dublin for several years, was arrested on the South Circular Road about 8.55 p.m. on September 7th on suspicion of being drunk in public.
A short time earlier he had been put out of St James's Hospital by two security staff because he was being disruptive.
Dr Patrick Plunkett, a consultant in emergency medicine at the hospital, said Mr Williams was well known to staff. He was an epileptic and had been to the hospital 80 to 90 times in the previous five years. He also had a history of being aggressive.
Dr Plunkett said that on the day of his final admission he was given an antidote to reverse the effects of an overdose of barbiturates and while the drug screen also was positive for phenobarbitone this was not seen as a problem as Mr Williams was prescribed the drug.
He added that staff felt Mr Williams was abusing phenobarbitone and, given the level of the drug found in his system post-mortem, he would have died of an overdose even if he had remained in the emergency room.
Staff Nurse Lila Nolan said she did not know who ordered that Mr Williams be removed from the hospital. She was aware of a disturbance about 8 p.m. and when she went off duty at 9 p.m. Mr Williams had gone.
At an earlier hearing a security man, Mr Niall White, said he had been told by a ward sister to remove Mr Williams and had done so with the assistance of another member of the security staff.
The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure.