Jail official felt Faqiri didn't meet bar for hospital, refused to watch video taken as he deteriorated

The top health care official at the jail where Soleiman Faqiri died didn't feel he met the bar for her to send him to hospital and refused to watch a video taken by a guard capturing his decline in segregation, a coroner's inquest heard Tuesday. That official had no medical background. 

Helen Hamblin told jurors that despite Faqiri behaving erratically and smearing feces on himself, she instructed staff to leave him be after they contacted her on Dec. 10 because she felt he wasn't in physical danger. 

"My concern would be if at some point he started to self-harm," Hamblin told jurors, noting while his mental condition was a concern, she didn't feel she could send him to the hospital on that basis. Hamblin said she believed she could only send Faqiri to the hospital if he was physically harming himself or if a nurse advised he be sent to hospital.

Hamblin was the director of programming at the Central East Correctional Centre during Faqiri's detention in December 2016 and oversaw health care at the jail. She was also the on-call deputy in charge on the weekend operational manager John Thompson sent an email alerting 60 supervising staff about Faqiri's condition.

"He has been naked, washing walls and rolling in his own feces for four days. The inmate needs to be showered and the cell disinfected," Thompson's email said in part.

Jurors have previously heard jail staff, whether health care or correctional, could have sent Faqiri to the emergency room if he could not be given the care he needed at the facility.

Any doctor could have also sent Faqiri to hospital on a Form 1 — a tool to place a person experiencing severe mental health difficulty in a facility for up to 72 hours for psychiatric assessment. Jurors have heard the doctor at the jail opted not to do so and will hear from that doctor this week. 

Hamblin told the jury she hadn't seen the email to supervisors and only learned about Faqiri's condition later that day when Thompson phoned her to request a specialized crisis team to move Faqiri from his cell to the shower. Hamblin said she and a mental health nurse on duty that day agreed the crisis team would only make a bad situation worse.

Her decision: It wasn't a "life or death" scenario, so staff should monitor Faqiri and advise if things escalated. 

Faqiri died five days later on Dec. 15 after being repeatedly struck by guards, pepper sprayed twice, covered with a spit hood and placed on his stomach on the floor of a segregation cell. His cause of death, previously deemed unascertained, was later deemed to be restraint in a face-down position and injuries from his struggle with guards. 

At the time of his death, Faqiri, who suffered from schizoaffective disorder — a combination of schizophrenic and bipolar symptoms — was awaiting a medical evaluation at the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences. He had been charged with aggravated assault, assault, and uttering threats following an altercation with a neighbour, but had not been convicted of any crime.

No one was ever charged in his death.

At no point during his time at the jail was Faqiri taken to a hospital or seen by a psychiatrist. Jurors have heard while the doctor employed by the jail suggested Faqiri be seen, the psychiatrist was away on vacation without a backup.

Jurors heard Hamblin, despite overseeing health care as part of her portfolio, had no background in the area. Nor did she have access to inmates' health records or those on remand.