Nurses and psychiatrists painting a picture of Serena Perry’s mental health on the fourth day of the inquest into the 22-year-old’s death at the Saint John Regional Hospital more than three years ago.
Testimony over the course of the day revealing that Serena Perry suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
Dr. Pamela Forsythe, a psychiatrist with Horizon Health, says when she saw Perry during a second hospital stay near the end of 2011 she was on medication and doing better but Perry believed God had healed her and she no longer had to take the meds. Forsythe says at the end of September Perry took last dose and she refused to take any more.
Forsythe saw Perry the morning of February 14, 2012, the date of Perry’s death, and says she was happy that day. She says after getting the call that Perry was dead she was stunned.
Dr. Vinod Joshi, also a psychiatrist, testifying he never encountered any suicidal ideation from Perry, saying in fact she was quite optimistic about life.
Helen Cullen, who works as a nurse on the psychiatric unit, says that sometimes Perry was restrained for aggression but that she settled fairly quickly. She used words like kind and helpful when asked to describe her.
Emergency Room doctor Paul Atkinson also testifying at the inquest, saying it was initially thought Perry had fallen because there wasn’t anything in the amphitheatre that someone could be hanged from. The jury was also told there was no sign of any trauma to Perry’s neck.
Testimony at the inquest continues on Thursday.
