Ryan inquest jury calls for mouth checks in detention

A coroner’s jury has recommended that prisoners’ mouths, ears and noses be checked when they are booked into the Saskatoon city police detention unit.

Following a public inquest this week, the six-member jury found Michael Lee Ryan, 38, died from an accidental overdose of methamphetamine and cocaine inside the unit at 3:34 p.m. on Feb. 26, 2016.

A paramedic found a small plastic “dime bag ” under Ryan’s tongue while intubating Ryan, who was found unresponsive in his cell, Coroner’s counsel Darren Howarth said in an interview on Thursday after the inquest ended.

The bag later tested positive for methamphetamine and cocaine.

Ryan was impaired by drugs when he was arrested after wandering in and out of traffic on the busy 22nd Street thoroughfare, but it’s not known whether he was high from the drugs in the bag and kept the empty bag in his mouth after his arrest, or ingested the bag ’s contents after he was already in his cell.

Video of Ryan in the police cruiser showed him talking without obvious signs of holding something in his mouth, but there were also periods on the detention unit’s surveillance video when his back was turned and his hands and face were not visible, Howarth said.

“That is something that will never be known. When did he ingest that?”

The jury also recommended commissionaires receive a higher level of training to recognize medical emergencies, have a clear job description outlining times for breaks, and rules about cellphone use. They suggest restricting cellphone use to breaks or work-related duties.

At the time of the incident, paramedics staffed the detention area only at night. Since then, paramedics are on duty around the clock, Howarth said.

Ryan, born and raised in Saskatoon, had worked for the railway and fathered a son who is now 16. Ryan was also a brother and was “always jolly,” recalled his mother, Bev Wiffen.

“He always had a smile. I called him my charmer,” she said. “He loved his son and did the best he could with what he had.”

Wiffen said the recommendations show the jury “really paid attention to the lack of concern.”

“I’m glad there’s some changes being made,” she said.

His brother, Cheney Ryan, said he was glad the recommendations drew attention to the amount of time a commissionaire spent looking at his phone when watching cell monitors was part of his job.

“That’s probably, in my brother’s final hours, where the lack of attention that he needed would have been,” Ryan said.