Addict’s death was not an overdose, mother is told
The mother of a 25-year-old heroin addict who died last year has been told it was not a drug overdose which killed him.
Lynn Spencer, whose son Christopher collapsed on October 27, 2012, received a call from Coroner’s officer Travis Powell on Thursday informing her of the results of a postmortem drugs test.
Ms Spencer had to wait more than a year for the information, due to problems at the government lab (see separate story), and still hasn’t been told if an inquest will be held into her son’s death, as she has requested.
According to the bereaved mother, Sergeant Powell said Christopher’s death was caused by a pulmonary oedema, meaning fluid on the lungs.
Although traces of drugs, including cannabis and the heroin derivatives morphine and codeine, were found in his system, there was not enough for him to have overdosed.
The final autopsy report, shared by Ms Spencer with The Royal Gazette, says he died due to acute heart and lung failure, “secondary to heroin abuse”.
Ms Spencer said the results raised more questions than answers about her son’s final moments and she hoped they could be answered at an inquest.
“I’m kind of disappointed that it wasn’t an overdose because I want to believe that he died peacefully,” she said. “Now I wonder: he was alone, was he in pain?”
She said her conversation with Sgt Powell had not convinced her that her son’s death was not linked to a “bad batch” of tainted heroin, a suspicion she has asked police to investigate.
“He said there was no poison in his system,” said Ms Spencer. “He did say that Bermuda had ‘good heroin’ and it was very unlikely that it was cut with poison.”
She said it was still her belief that Christopher was sold drugs which were mixed with something toxic — and that he may not have been the only victim.
This newspaper can reveal that a little more than two weeks after Mr Spencer died, a fellow heroin addict and friend of his passed away.
Ms Spencer has been told by a friend of the 27-year-old man that he was seen with Mr Spencer just days before the latter died. The friend said the pair were in a car together, on their way to “score” heroin from a dealer they did not normally use, as their usual supply had dried up.
Although police are investigating Mr Spencer’s death, Commissioner of Police Michael DeSilva told The Royal Gazette there were no “special circumstances” surrounding the other man’s death which would prompt a police inquiry.
The Royal Gazette is not naming the 27-year-old man, at the request of a family member. But his aunt told this newspaper that though the official cause of his death was given as pneumonia, she had heard rumours “on the street” that he may have taken bad drugs, possibly cut with rat poison.
“Of course, they [police] should have [investigated that],” said the 42-year-old woman. “I feel he was sick at that time because of the drugs. He didn’t have anywhere to stay at the time. It’s sad that no one else went forward and investigated the cause of death for this man.”
She said her nephew was homeless at the time of his death and trying to get off drugs and back on his feet.
And she told how he suffered chest pains and breathing difficulties in the ambulance on the way to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. He was pronounced dead at the hospital in the early hours of the following day.
Mr Spencer, a former reporter at The Royal Gazette, also complained of chest pains the day before he died, according to his mother.
The aunt said of her nephew’s death: “It was just like, suddenly, boom, and I’m wondering what the heck was going on.”
She said he’d been let down by Government after being asked to leave a drug rehabilitation programme. “You can write that he died of a broken heart,” she said. “Nobody came to his rescue.”
Ms Spencer said she wanted police to investigate the possibility that the pair bought “bad” heroin from the same source.
“That’s the only thing that I want the police to look at,” she said. “I know it’s too late for all of that, probably, but you know what? Next time, maybe it will prevent someone else from dying.”
Mr DeSilva told this newspaper in relation to the 27-year-old man: “There was no report made to police at the time about any suspicious nature of his death and no investigation was conducted. The autopsy and toxicology reports have been completed and the police are not aware of any special circumstances that would warrant a formal investigation.”
Following further questions, he added: “The police did not investigate the death of [the man] because it was not attributed to any act of criminality. The police do not investigate deaths that are caused by medical conditions — whether they develop through natural causes or lifestyle choices — unless there is a criminal suspicion attached.
“It is not for the police to report on how individual people have died. That is a matter for the Coroner and only where the cause of death is in the public’s interest. That is not the case here. [The man’s] death is a privacy matter for his family. But given the reporter’s repeated line of questioning, I am compelled to at least clarify that [the man’s] death was not linked to a drug overdose.”
Regarding the possibility of tainted drugs, the Commissioner said police were not “aware of any evidence to support the hypothesis of a ‘bad batch’ of heroin affecting multiple victims in Bermuda”.
He noted that drug use, particularly of heroin, was an “inherently dangerous practice” that presented significant risks to a person’s health.
Mr DeSilva said last month that police were still investigating Mr Spencer’s death and the case could not be closed until the postmortem drug report was completed and a file was presented to “either the Director of Public Prosecutions or the Coroner, as appropriate”.
Ms Spencer told this newspaper that two other young people died in the weeks after her son and she questioned whether they too could have taken the same drug.
This newspaper asked police about both deaths and a spokesman said neither was the subject of a police investigation.
“They were not matters for the Coroner,” he added. “Their deaths were certified by the doctors that attended to each of them. In these circumstances, the cause of death is not a matter for the police to make known to the public.”
Senior Coroner Archibald Warner decides which sudden deaths warrant an inquest, though he deals with most by way of “file review” and without a public hearing.
Mr DeSilva’s statement suggests an inquest will not be held into the death of the 27-year-old.
Government has insisted that its costly new central laboratory is not experiencing “significant operational interruptions” — despite a postmortem drug test for one man taking more than a year to complete.
The Royal Gazette revealed on October 28 that the facility, which relocated at the end of 2011 after a year-long closure, had still not finished an analysis of blood, urine and tissue samples taken from 25-year-old Christopher Spencer, a heroin addict who died on October 27 last year.
The toxicology report has now been done and has been passed to the pathologist who conducted an autopsy on Mr Spencer — but the Department of Health has not given Mr Spencer’s mother Lynn a clear explanation for the delay.
A Department spokeswoman told this newspaper that toxicology analysis, such as that conducted on the samples from Mr Spencer, could take “from two to six months, but can take longer depending on the circumstances”.
She would not comment on why the report on Mr Spencer took so long but said, in an e-mailed response, that a report could take longer than six months “if there was an operational delay: for instance, if there was equipment malfunction or [a] major facility problem (e.g. flooding)”.
The spokeswoman said the move of the lab from its original location at the old hospital building on Point Finger Road had “resulted in extended difficulties with the facility and the equipment used to carry out a wide range of analyses”.
Asked if the extended difficulties at the lab were still going on at its new location, she replied: “The lab (as with any workplace) has an ongoing ‘to do list’. None of the current challenges are of a scale that they might cause significant operational interruptions.”
The spokeswoman added: “Presently all equipment is operational.”
The latest complaint about the lab is not the first since it moved from Point Finger Road.
In July 2011, this newspaper reported how widow Suzie Lowe struggled to get a death certificate for her husband Rob Ambrosio, because of the failure of the lab to produce a timely toxicology report.
In May this year, we reported that the lab’s alco-analyser machines, used to test breath samples taken by police, were out of service for two weeks.
The Point Finger Road facility closed in October 2010, when Government promised it would reopen at a temporary location two months later, after its equipment had been dismantled and reinstalled.
Nine months later we reported that it was still shut — and that samples were being sent overseas for testing.
Government’s long-term plan was to relocate the lab at a new four-storey building in Pembroke, along with other offices.
In February 2011, the Ministry of Public Works said, in response to parliamentary questions, that total development of the new laboratory, plus the cost of storing equipment, had so far totalled more than $1.46 million.
In July that year, Opposition Senator Kathy Michelmore called for more transparency.
The One Bermuda Alliance politician said in the Upper Chamber: “I’m just asking if Government could furnish us with more information. What is happening with the government laboratory? We need to be given regular updates to reassure us that this is being handled effectively.”
The lab reopened in October 2011, when Government told this newspaper that staff spent the year-long closure doing tasks including paperwork and moving equipment.
In March 2012, Parliament approved a budget overspend of $483,060 for the lab for the financial year 2010/11.
The OBA became the Government in December — but it has said little about the lab since.
In July this year, Attorney General Mark Pettingill told the House of Assembly that Government paid a $700,000 settlement to Canadian architects Carruthers Shaw and Partners, of which $200,000 related to an outstanding bill for work on the lab construction project.
The Department of Health has apologised to Ms Spencer for the time it took to complete the report on her late son. It asked this newspaper not to reveal the lab’s current location, for security reasons.
