IN PADDED CELL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 185, 30 March 1932, Page 2

IN PADDED CELL

MANIAC KILLS WARDER IN DESPERATE BATTLE. BITTEN AND BEATEN. Tragedy in rare and remarkable circumstances was disclosed at an iftquest at Romford Public Assistance Institution on Fredericlc William Davis, 60, one of the staff of mental attendants there. Davis was involved in a struggle with a young and powerful inmate who developed maniacal tendencies and had to be restrained by force. The attendant bitten and pummelled collapsed under the strain and never recovered. His home waa-in Barking, and during the war he was a quarter-master-sergeant in the Royal Engineers. He leaves a widow and grownup family. Alhert Day, another attendant, explained to the' coroner that a man of 23, who had lodged at Dagenham, was admitted to the institution for observation. >In a few hours he became exceedingly violent, and Davis held the patient while Day injected morphia. "I turned round to put away the syringe," proceeded witness, "and I heard Davis call, £He's got me.' I looked, and saw the patient still in bed. Davis was lying across the bed with the man's teeth fixed in his wrist." Day pulled the patient's head away, and Davis suggested that the man should be pUt in a padded cell. They caught hold of the patient, and carried him to the cell with the assistance of another patient. The man was still very violent, but Davis suggested, "Now release him, and we will put him in." 'HP's Got Me." As Day turned to leave the cell the patient gripped Davis' leg. Witness parted them, but the patient got hold of Davis' leg agara, and a struggle erisued neat the door. The patient then got hold of Davis round the thigh and pulled him down. Davis was getting exhausted, and as the patient seized him once more he called out, "Oh, he's got me again," afid then collapsed. The other patient thereupon summoned assistance, and the patient was put into the cell. Dr. A. Golombek, assistant medical offieer at Oidchurch Hospital, gave evidence that he found superficial bruises on both Davis' wrists and on the right thigh, and there were teeth marks imprinted on them. Davis had ati enlarged heart, and there was also fatty degeneration. In his view death was due to the state of the heart, accelerated by the exertion D^vis underwent in restraining the mental patient. D^. Golombek added that he gave the order for a morphia injection, and it was " customary for it to be administered by the attendants. The jury found that the cause of death was syncope, due to fatty degeneration of the heart, accelerated after the exertion caused by the effort to control a mental patient while in the exercise of duty. The patient, it is understood, was mrioved fi*om Romford immediately after the tragedy and transferred to Brentwood Mental Hospital.