Autopsy: Painkiller caused P.A. in-custody death

Days leading up to the ambulance ride

On Tuesday, Ballantyne’s sister Alice Naytowhow testified he’d been sick for days before that ambulance ride.

Ballantyne, who lived near Canoe Lake, west of Lac Ile-a-la-Crosse, had a fight with his wife and was visiting family on Little Red River First Nation, Naytowhow said.

He’d helped push vehicles out of the ditch and after that was sick, sweating, vomiting, and suffering from a sore back. In the past, Ballantyne suffered from ongoing back pain and trouble breathing, finding only short-term relief from using alcohol and doctor-prescribed Tylenol, his sister said.

While he was sick in November 2012, Naytowhow, her sister, and mother kept Ballantyne rested, fed him and gave him fluid, Naytowhow explained.

She said she witnessed him take three or four over-the-counter acetaminophen (Tylenol) pills at a time to deal with his pain on several occassions.

A trip to a mediclinic yielded no results since he was refused service for seeming intoxicated, Naytowhow said.

Around 3 a.m. on Nov. 29, when an ambulance took him to hospital, he was assessed to be in a non-serious condition by paramedics, meaning he had to be seen within five hours, according to Kimberly Stonechild. She asked questions on behalf of Ballantyne’s family at the inquest.

He waited alone in the ER’s waiting room, with his vitals taken by a nurse. However, Ballantyne did not see a doctor in those hours.

Guards approached him many times and stated he said he did not need a doctor. Testimony detailed Ballantyne trying to leave the hospital on a very cold day, and guards calling police to take him away for disturbing a family. However, that was countered by one of the members of that family, Louis Caron, in his testimony.

After 6 a.m. police picked Ballantyne up for public intoxication, and he died hours later at 9 a.m.

Autopsy report finds overdose as cause of death

Dr. Shaun Ladham, a forensic pathologist performed the autopsy on Ballantyne. He said liver necrosis, caused by an overdose of acetaminophen, was the primary cause of death. A heart attack, likely caused after experiencing significant stress, aided by heart disease, was considered a secondary cause.

Ladham’s testimony explained the escalation of symptoms someone who’s overdosed on acetaminophen would experience over the course of three days.

These symptoms include the brain function resembling intoxication, back pain, abdomen pain, and skin turning yellow.

Ladham said overdoses could be from many pills taken at the same time, which would likely be intentional. However, he said taking more than the recommended dose of acetaminophen over the course of several days could lead to an accidental overdose.

When asked about the effect of liver necrosis, Ladham said the “degree of pain goes along with the degree of damage.”

Based on other anti-inflammatory medication found in Ballantyne’s toxicology, Ladham said his opinion was the man had been trying to treat his pain and had an accidental overdose.

The experienced pathologist has performed more than 4,000 autopsies, and said this is the only case he’s seen that’s accidental.

The ER doctor who pronounced Ballantyne dead at Victoria Hospital spoke to the changes in policy there after the man’s death.

Dr. Francois Rosseau said among those changes is the ER requiring a doctor’s assessment before someone can be taken away by police.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk

by Chelsea Laskowski

Autopsy: Painkiller caused P.A. in-custody death

What's Trending