COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN LED TO MORPHINE OVERDOSE

SASKATOON -- Nobody told an emergency ward doctor that two police
officers had seen a man swallow about 100 morphine pills or that he
had asked them to shoot him, the doctor told a coroner's inquest Tuesday.

Dr. Paul Gartner treated Wayne Allen Strandquist, 45, at St. Paul's
Hospital on New Year's Day 2006 and released him into police custody
without ever learning that there were eye witnesses to contradict
Strandquist's claim he had only taken six prescribed tablets for back pain.

Strandquist died in police cells about five hours later apparently
from a morphine over dose.

The inquest is trying to sort out how the communication break down occurred.

Strandquist had been arrested following a domestic dispute and a
stand off with police, during which he had threatened two constables
with a sword and they had drawn their pistols.

Strandquist had eaten the pills as he kept the officers at bay and
had told them repeatedly to shoot him.

One of the officers called for an ambulance because of the pills.

Police used pepper spray and finally tackled Strandquist. Those who
saw him take the pills did not go to the hospital with him.

One of the constables said he told an ambulance attendant he had seen
Strandquist take the pills but it is not yet clear which attendant
that was or if he or she informed his or her colleague or anybody at
the hospital.

One of the paramedics informed hospital staff that Strandquist's
common law wife had said he had taken about 100 morphine pills.
Strandquist denied taking an over dose and said his wife was drunk
and was trying to get him in trouble, Gartner said.

Gartner said he had no other information to suggest Strandquist was suicidal.

There is no record of two different police officers, who brought
Strandquist to the hospital, contradicting him, Gartner said.

The incident was unusual in that police patients are usually brought
in by the same officers involved in the arrest and it is uncommon for
police to have medically relevant information, Gartner said.

Gartner said he asked what happened and expected that if police or
paramedics had medically relevant information they would have told him.

Because there was a possibility of drug overdose, Gartner
administered charcoal to prevent absorption, he said.

If he had known for sure that Strandquist had taken about 100 pills,
however, he would also have sent the patient to the psychiatrist on
call at Royal University Hospital (RUH) and had that hospital monitor
him for effects of narcotic overdose so that an antidote could have
been administered when appropriate, Gartner said.

Instead, Strandquist was released about two or two-and-a-half hours
after arriving at St. Paul's. He did not exhibit signs of drug
overdose at that time, Gartner said.

Gartner said he didn't recognize Strandquist as a patient he had
treated about four years earlier for a morphine over dose following
an incident with police. Gartner had saved Strandquist's life the
first time, the inquest heard.

Strandquist was found not breathing and unresponsive in police cells
shortly before 6 a.m. Jan. 2, 2006, and could not be revived, said
Dr. John Froh, who attempted resuscitation at RUH.