DWAYNE FOSTER who was found unresponsive in a Dublin Garda station was cold on arrival to hospital and was likely to have been dead for some time, an inquest has heard.
Earlier the jury saw more video footage of Mr Foster being questioned the night before his death.
He was seen in the video asking to see a doctor on two occasions and he was reassured by gardaí that one was being contacted. He also asked for a cup of coffee as he was “falling asleep”.
Dwayne Foster (24), of Woodbank Avenue, Finglas, was discovered to be unresponsive in Coolock Garda station in the early hours of March 7th, 2006 and was taken to Beaumont Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
A postmortem by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis found Mr Foster died from methadone intoxication.
Mr Foster was being questioned at the time about the shooting of mother of one, Donna Cleary, who was shot dead at a party in Coolock in the early hours of March 5th, 2006.
Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard yesterday that Mr Foster arrived at Beaumont hospital by ambulance at 3.00am on March 7th. He was unresponsive, his pupils were fixed and dilated, the peripheries of his body were cold and there was visible mottling of the skin around his fingers.
Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation continued for 17 minutes but Mr Foster was pronounced dead at 3.17am.
He had initially been brought to the hospital less than six hours earlier, having been referred by Dr Peadar Kirk for further assessment of a head injury. He had been examined and discharged back to Coolock Garda station with a soft tissue injury.
Mr Foster had been administered methadone on two occasions the previous day by Dr Kirk, after Mr Foster told him that he was a drug addict, was on a methadone treatment programme and was on 60ml of methadone per day.
“I saw nothing in my history taking or in my clinical examination that led me to say I shouldn’t give this man methadone,” said Dr Kirk on day three of the hearing.
Dr Kirk, who had examined Mr Foster on both occasions, had tried to make contact with Ballymun clinic to verify that Mr Foster was on the methadone programme there, but was unsuccessful. The inquest continues.