A PRISONER died from a brain injury, after taking spice in his cell, an inquest has found.
Liam Clerkson, 27, died on August 6, 2018, at the University Hospital of North Durham after he collapsed at HMP Durham on August 3.
Clerkson, of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, was found unconscious in his cell on the same day he was transferred to HMP Durham.
Prison staff dragged him out of the cell by his feet to make space to carry out CPR only to hit his head off the ground.
Evidence showed it took about three minutes before resuscitation started.
The inquest held at Redhills, in Durham, heard a CT scan showed four packages of drugs in his body – one of these was inside a Kinder egg.
An investigation following his death found drug paraphernalia in his cell including a pie wrapper which was placed in the electric sockets and a deodorant lid.
In the pocket of his tracksuit there was also a wrap which contained a green herbal substance thought to be spice.
Dr Jennifer Bolton, a pathologist who carried out a post mortem attributed the death to the affects of “zombie” drug spice.
She said: “The most important finding was the presence of spice. Spice is a synthetic drug and made to mimic cannabis.
“I’ve given the cause of death as hypoxic brain injury. The brain was damaged because it was deprived of oxygen during the cardiac arrest and ultimately the underlining cause of his death was the affects of spice.”
Jurors yesterday concluded that there were missed opportunities at HMP Durham to manage the resuscitation before the prisoner was taken to hospital.
However, these were found not to make a difference to the outcome or contribute to his death.
In conclusion, the jury ruled his death as drug-related by misadventure.
Assistant coroner, Oliver Longstaff, said he would not make a report into the circumstances surrounding the prison's resuscitation attempts or how the prisoner was able to bring drugs into the prison so easily.
He said since the inmate's death steps have been taken by the prison service and healthcare providers to prevent future deaths.
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