More details emerge in rehab death inquiry

UPDATE – JANUARY 27

FURTHER conflicting evidence was heard last Thursday on day four of the inquest into the death of Blair Trouchet . The inquest was held at the Ramsgate High Court. Miss Trouchet, a drug addict, was admitted to the South Coast Recovery Centre and Halfway House on Sunday, February 20, 2011. She died on Wednesday, February 23.

The first person to take the witness box last Thursday was Shane Meyer, a patient at the centre at the time of Miss Trouchet’s death. He claimed to have had played a board game  with the Miss Trouchet and other patients on the evening before she died. Mr Meyer is currently employed at the centre as a night duty inspector.

Under cross-examination by Senior Advocate Jean Marais, who is representing the centre, and Dr Stephen Stewart, Mr Meyer agreed that Miss Trouchet didn’t have trouble concentrating during the game. Mr Meyer said there was nothing out of the ordinary, and that she was smiling and chatting to her ‘buddy’, Stephanie Hancock, who was assigned to look after her in the detox area.

Senior Advocate Sarel Bekker, representing the Trouchet family, brought to Mr Meyer’s attention that Ms Hancock never mentioned the game of  when she testified. Advocate Bekker said Ms Hancock had told the court she woke Miss Trouchet up sometime after 6pm to take her medicine, and that she was in bed by 9pm. “How did she manage to fit in a board game?” asked Advocate Bekker. “Let me put it to you, this is a fabrication, it never happened,” he said.

Mr Meyer was questioned by Advocate Alan Boulle about his statement in his affidavit of Miss Trouchet having ‘enlarged pupils’ while playing the game. Mr Meyer said it was her dilated pupils that ‘stood out’ for him, as he had seen it himself when he was using substances. He said he could remember Miss Trouchet playing the game, but when questioned by Advocate Bekker, he couldn’t recall everyone who had played the game that evening. Advocate Bekker questioned how Mr Meyer, who has had no medical training and who not gone through detoxification, would know if Miss Trouchet’s pupils were enlarged due to detox medication,  or for another reason.

Another witness, Amor Flowerday, previously a patient and now working at the centre, told the court she heard Miss Trouchet snoring. This was while she (Ms Flowerday) was having a cigarette with other patients in the ‘detox quad’ on Wednesday morning. “I remember she was snoring quite loudly. We laughed, as all the new girls had something that stood out and something we could all relate to,” she said.

During last year’s week-long inquest, Dr Stephen Stewart told the court that he had contacted Dr Michelle Westcott to be the locum doctor while he was  on holiday.  He had initially seen  Ms Trouchet when she was admitted to the centre. However, Dr Westcott said that Miss Trouchet was never her patient. “At the time of the incident, I was not aware of Miss Trouchet and I don’t have any record that I knew the patient,” she said. “As far as I recall, and according to my medical notes, I did not formally or informally stand in for Dr Stewart,” she said.  She also denied being involved in the detoxification of patients.

Dr Westcott started seeing patients at the centre in May that year, after Dr Stewart stopped working at the centre. When asked about the medical equipment at the centre, Dr Westcott said there was ‘not much’  (medical) equipment at the centre when she arrived. She, however, had informed the centre manager, Conrad Cooper, who was cooperative. Dr Westcott recommended what the centre needed and the necessary equipment was ordered. The inquest is set to continue in Durban but no date has been finalised.

January 24

AN INQUEST into the death of Cape Town fashion designer, Blair Lynn Trouchet (26), began at the Ramsgate High Court on Monday this week.

Miss Trouchet (26), who suffered from a drug addiction, was admitted to the South Coast Recovery Centre and Halfway House in Ramsgate on Sunday, February 20, 2011.

On February 23, 2011, inpatients and staff at the centre were unable to rouse Miss Trouchet, and after attempts at CPR had apparently failed to revive her, she was rushed to the casualty section at Netcare Margate Hospital.

She is thought to have died at the centre.

A week-long inquest was held in June last year, and was postponed to January 20 to 24 this year.

Stephanie Hancock, Miss Trouchet’s roommate, was the first to testify on Monday. She was followed by another inpatient Charlotte Delmont. Both women were assigned to look after Miss Trouchet and other new patients in detox.

A former house mother at the centre, Carmen Swart, took to the witness box on Tuesday. Miss Swart had been an inpatient at the centre from November 2008. She later began working as a receptionist, and then as a house mother, for roughly a year.

On the morning of Wednesday, February 23, Ms Swart was informed that Miss Trouchet was still asleep, and they couldn’t wake her.

She went to Miss Trouchet’s room in the ‘detox area’ and found her not to be breathing and unresponsive. “She appeared lifeless,” she added.

“I immediately realised it was an emergency, someone did call the ambulance, but I can’t recall the sequence or how it happened,” she said.

Under cross-examination by Senior Advocate Sarel Bekker, who is representing the Trouchet family, it was established that Ms Swart had only a matric qualification, and had no specific training to be a house mother.

Advocate Bekker brought to the court’s attention that at least four counsellors at the centre had been inpatients, and then worked as counsellors at the centre. In some cases, the counsellors had paired off and married.

Advocate Bekker explained to Ms Swart that the reason he had these questions was that he was under the impression from a number of her reports that she had tried to create a picture that she had a close association with Miss Trouchet, and was very much in touch with her, but in fact, she never had.

Ms Swart said each resident was assigned a counsellor. However, she agreed with Advocate Bekker, when it was suggested to her that Miss Trouchet didn’t have a counsellor assigned to her. Ms Swart suggested that it was perhaps because she was a new patient.

Ms Swart said Miss Trouchet had seemed ‘a lot better’ when she briefly saw her sitting in the ‘detox quad’ on Tuesday, compared to when she had arrived on the Monday.

However, Advocate Bekker, said her version conflicted with Ms Hancock’s, who had testified that Miss Trouchet couldn’t keep her eyes open, and that she was even falling asleep with a cigarette in her mouth, and was snoring.

Ms Swart also admitted under cross-examination by Advocate Bekker that patients were not observed by a registered nurse 24-7, and later told the court that nurses also didn’t do rounds in detox.

Advocate Bekker questioned how nurses or medical staff were supposed to know if there were any problems in detox, Ms Swart said Miss Trouchet or her ‘buddy’ would have notified the nurse.

Advocate Bekker brought it to Ms Swart’s attention that as a house mother she had signed a process form as a counsellor.

She agreed with Advocate Bekker that she was told by centre manager, Conrad Cooper, to write about Miss Trouchet, and her interaction with her, after she died.

It was brought to the court’s attention that an entry was made on February 25, 2011, two days after the death.

Further witnesses will be called to the stand and cross-examination by counsel will continue until Friday this week.