HALIFAX - An emergency room doctor told a fatality inquiry Wednesday she would not have discharged Howard Hyde from a Halifax hospital had she known the mentally ill man would be sent to a jail cell rather than a psychiatric hospital.
Dr. Janet MacIntyre was one of the doctors who cared for Hyde after he was Tasered up to five times by officers while trying to escape police headquarters in the early hours of Nov. 21, 2007.
The inquiry has heard that Hyde, who had long suffered from schizophrenia, lapsed into unconsciousness and stopped breathing soon after police restrained him during a violent struggle in a hallway of the station.
Hyde, a 45-year-old musician who had been arrested for allegedly assaulting his common-law wife, was taken to the hospital after an officer revived him using CPR.
He died about 30 hours later as he scuffled with guards at a jail in the nearby suburb of Dartmouth. A coroner listed the cause of death as excited delirium stemming from paranoid schizophrenia.
MacIntyre testified Wednesday that on the morning Hyde was admitted to the QEII Health Sciences Centre, a police officer told her he was confident Hyde would get a court-ordered forensic psychiatric assessment once he appeared before a judge later that day.
"I felt quite certain that was going to happen in a timely manner," MacIntyre told inquiry counsel Dan MacRury. "The police officer I spoke to felt that would be highly likely. So that's the route I chose."
Earlier in the inquiry, the rookie officer who spoke to MacIntyre, Const. John Haislip, testified that he didn't have a good grasp of the court process.
MacIntyre said she declared Hyde "medically stable" and released him from the hospital at 9:15 a.m. He was brought before a judge in the afternoon.
MacIntyre said she could have kept Hyde at the hospital for an in-house assessment, but police expressed some "urgency" about the court appearance.
Still, the doctor said she didn't feel pressured to release Hyde.
"I basically felt there was a sense of urgency that Mr. Hyde was required in court that morning and that that was a relatively important thing and that they were concerned that he get to that court appointment."
As well, she said she believed a forensic evaluation was an alternative to a hospital assessment because it would provide the same care, even though she admitted she did not know the difference between the two procedures.
Evidence presented earlier at the inquiry suggested MacIntyre had started lining up an assessment for Hyde at the hospital, but the doctor said Wednesday that wasn't the case. She said an electronic form that indicated a psychiatric nurse was to be consulted was probably entered by a nurse anticipating Hyde's course of treatment.
MacIntyre testified that when she learned police could not guarantee Hyde would receive a forensic evaluation, she included a note on his health transfer form that instructed police to bring him back to the hospital if he did not get an assessment through the courts.
"I felt that was a bit of a safety net," she said.
The inquiry heard that Hyde was incoherent and was given an anti-psychotic drug when he was first admitted to the hospital just before 3 a.m. But MacIntyre did not prescribe more medication because she believed Hyde would soon be in the care of psychiatrists at the East Coast Forensic Hospital.
When Hyde appeared before a judge later that day, the doctor's instructions were not relayed to the proper authorities and an assessment was not ordered.
The inquiry has heard that police did not have the authority to return Hyde to the hospital and court sheriffs did not routinely submit health transfer forms to Crown lawyers.
"Once Mr. Hyde was turned over to the sheriffs, he wasn't in police custody," MacRury said outside the hearing. "He was in the custody of the sheriffs and the custody of the court. The court ordered that he be remanded until the next day."
Procedures have been changed to prevent similar communication breakdowns within the court system, the inquiry has been told.
"It's clear that communication is an important issue that has to be addressed, and that will be one of the recommendations to look at," MacRury said.
MacIntyre, an emergency room doctor since 2005, agreed when asked if it would have been better for Hyde to be in a hospital rather than a jail.
She also said she would have ordered a psychiatric assessment at the hospital if she had known Hyde would not get one through the courts.
The doctor noted that if Hyde was not in the custody of police when he was admitted, an in-house exam would have been ordered because she would not have had the option of sending him for a forensic exam, which falls under the justice system.
MacIntyre said communication had to improve between the hospital, police and court staff.
Another doctor testified earlier this week that police told him that Hyde had been Tasered between two and five times during the struggle with officers at the police station.
The inquiry heard that Dr. Stephen Curry had told the RCMP that Halifax police were "gung-ho" to get Hyde out of the hospital and into a courtroom.
The probe continues Thursday.
