Pubdate: Fri, 12 Aug 2005
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2005 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Janet French, Saskatchewan News Network; CanWest News Service

POLICE TOO SLOW TO SAVE OVERDOSING WOMAN: FAMILY

SASKATOON -- A woman who died in police custody in June was storing a
packet of drugs in her vagina when she began to feel ill, her
boyfriend says.

Dona Sanderson, 42, was pregnant when she was arrested June 19 and
taken to the Saskatoon Police Service detention centre.

In the early hours of June 20, she confessed to lockup staff she was
concealing drugs and suspected the package may have broken inside her,
said Stan B., her partner and a spokesperson for the family. He did
not want to give his last name.

Sanderson's heart stopped before she made it to St. Paul's
Hospital.

Stan says her family questions whether a swifter police reaction to
her request for medical attention would have saved her life.

He says more than an hour passed between the time Sanderson said she
felt ill and the time she was admitted to hospital, according to a
timeline he is trying to piece together by talking to police, hospital
staff and witnesses in the cells that night.

When Sanderson told a special constable she was ill, the officer
called the sergeant, who then called for a police cruiser to take her
to hospital, he said.

"It's my belief that if the police had reacted immediately --- when
they decided to call a squad car, they should have called the
ambulance -- chances are she would have been alive today," Stan said.
"They should have got an ambulance in there and got her to a hospital,
like ASAP."

After a week on life-support, Sanderson's family decided to remove
assistance. The single mother died in hospital in the early hours of
June 27, leaving behind an eight-year-old daughter.

"She was a very good mother," Stan said. "She gave her daughter
everything that she could possibly give her -- lots of love, lots of
affection."

Kent Stewart, the province's chief coroner, said there will be an
inquest into Sanderson's death.

Because an investigation is ongoing, police can release few details
about Sanderson's death, police spokesperson Alyson Edwards said.

A city police news release issued in June said MD Ambulance staff were
summoned after Sanderson "indicated she required medical assistance
and was in obvious discomfort."

A June 28 autopsy found no anatomical cause of death and a toxicology
report was ordered. Edwards said police aren't expecting the results
for another few weeks. Police say she died of a suspected drug overdose.

Edwards couldn't comment on how long it took Sanderson to get medical
attention.

"If a prisoner is complaining, then immediately the sergeant in charge
of detention is notified and that sergeant makes the determination if
that person should be transferred to hospital," Edwards said.

Although commissionaires and special constables in lockup have CPR and
first aid training, there are no emergency medical technicians or
paramedics monitoring detainees.

The commissionaires do a visual check of all prisoners every 10
minutes and special constables or a sergeant will also check the
prisoners hourly to ensure they look well, Edwards said.

Since 1986, six people have died while in Saskatoon police
custody.

Police won't say what Sanderson was charged with because she never
appeared in court.

Stan says what upsets him is that neither he nor Sanderson's
babysitter received a phone call telling him she was in hospital.
Saskatoon Health Region officials say their records indicate there was
communication with family members, but couldn't provide details.

Stan says he waited in provincial court for Sanderson to make an
appearance, and when she didn't show up, he started searching for her.
Hours later, with Sanderson's daughter in tow, Stan discovered her in
the intensive care unit of St. Paul's Hospital.

"I walk in, she's got all these tubes running in and out of her," he
said. "I glance at her board, and it (says) Code Blue. Well I knew she
was dead then."

How Sanderson ended up with a packet of drugs stored inside her is a
question Stan is scrambling to answer. A recovering addict, Sanderson
was on the methadone program and was trying to turn her life around,
he said. Living on social assistance on Saskatoon's west side, she
wanted to train to work in a casino, where she had been offered a job.

"She was basically trying to straighten her life around," Stan said.
"She was always very happy. She looked forward to every day as another
new day for her."

The night she was arrested, she had told her babysitter she was "going
to go out and try and make some money," Stan said. She met up with two
men Stan suspects are drug dealers.

"It is our belief, and mine in particular, that Dona was forced to do
what she did," he said. "Knowing her as I knew her, she wouldn't have
done it otherwise -- concealed product."

Sanderson was also treated in hospital on the evening of June 19 after
her wrist fractured during a forcible arrest.

Caroline Wright, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society, said
she's heard of Sanderson's case.

The society, which works to improve the lives of women in conflict
with the law, hopes to be involved with the inquest into her death,
with the family's blessing, Wright said.

Wright is concerned about the lack of support available for women in
police lockup.

"It's come up in the inquests, too, that the (police) response (to
medical concerns) might not have been what it should be," Wright said.

"I think the problem again is, they're in a police cell, which
indicates the kind of observation and the kind of response that
they're going to get, so it's not the best place for them to be to
begin with." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake