Phoenix Rising - Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto

Anonymous
On the morning of May 4, 1985, a
nineteen-year-old woman was found
dead in Riviere-des-Prairies Hospital.
She was naked in a bathtub
without any water. When the hospital
would not give the woman's
mother any information about the
death, she sought help from Madeleine
Girard (a former president of
the Parents' Association, which has
been fighting against abuses at
Riviere-des-Prairies), who got her a
legal-aid lawyer.
The lawyer obtained an autopsy
report from the hospital, which stated
that the woman was part of a
group of people whose cause of
death could not be established with
certainty. He then asked the Quebec
Coroner to conduct aninquest into
the death, writing that "The circumstances
of this death appear to
be quite mysterious. No one can tell
when (she) was seen alive for the last
time Could she have been forgotten?
Many other questions
remain unanswered regarding the
security of the patients in psychiatric
institutions. Particularly in the
case of this hospital, where twelve
cases of 'suspicious' death have
been recorded within the past three
years .... "
The Quebec Coroner refused the
call for an inquest.
(Vol. 5 No.4: "Medieval torture
exposed to the light"; information
.•. courtesy of The Canadian Human
Rights Advocate)
INMATE
DEATHS.,
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KILLS
Aldo Alviani
Aldo Alviani died a tragic and unnecessary
death when he was only
nineteen. On June 23,1980, while a
"patient" in Toronto's Queen
Street Mental Health Centre,
Alviani died after a massive dose of
Haldol-one of the most dangerous
and powerful of all "antipsychotic"
drugs.
Many people believe that Alviani
was killed by the Queen Street
staff's excessive reliance on psychiatric
drugs. Big (over six feet and
around 240 pounds), Italian, and
poor, with a record of psychiatric
incarcerations, Alviani was an easy
target for psychiatric drug control.
On the night of June 21, he was
arrested twice. The police laid no
charges, but took him to Humber
Memorial Hospital. It is clear from
the events that followed that
psychiatric staff, both at Humber
Memorial Hospital and at Queen
Street Mental Health Centre, had
already labeled Alviani "difficult."
Upon his admission to Humber
Memorial, staff judged him to be
"agitated" and gave him a tranquillizer.
The next morning, he was
transferred to Queen Street, where
staff promptly started drugging him
with several times the "maximum
safe dosage" of Haldol, as well as
Nozinan and Valium, despite the
fact that he was already tranquillized.
They did no blood or urine
tests before or during the drugging,
though they suspected that Alviani
had been using street drugs. The
cause of death was said to be "therapeutic
misadventure."
(Vol. 1 No.3, Vol. 1 No.4)
(A/viani's body was shipped to
Toronto Western Hospita/ before he
waspronounced dead.)
Norman Davis
Norman Davis died from forced
drugging, or prescribed overdoses
of dangerous psychiatric drugs, at
27 years of age.
A few hours after Davis was
admitted to Queen Street Mental
Health Centre on December 4, 1981,
psychiatrist Mark Lowery prescribed
24 ml of paraldehyde to be
administered over a 24-hour period,
in addition to a moderate dose of
Nozinan. However, the medical
chart showed that 32 ml of paraldehyde
was actually administered: a
nurse misread the doctor's order.
Around four p.m. on December 6,
another inmate found Davis lying
unconscious and dead-white in bed;
he immediately called a nurse. Davis
was rushed to Toronto Western
Hospital, where he was pronounced
dead.
The jury's verdict was that the
official cause of death was "cardiac
arrest"; the means or mechanism of
death was listed as "unknown."
Apparently, the jury was unimpressed
by or simply unaware of the
fact that paraldehyde is a very
potent, unstable and dangerous
drug. In fact, the drug has been
medically discredited; it's rarely
been used in the past decade. When
administered alone or in combination
with other drugs, paraldehyde
frequently causes serious medical
complications, including death.
(Vol. 3 No.1 "Norman Davis: Another
Unnecessary Drug Death" by
llin Weitz)
17/ Phoenix Rising