Man ‘killed himself after medics sent him away’
A MOTHER wept in court yesterday as she told how her son was turned away from a psychiatric hospital as he begged for help days before he took his own life.
Dale Thomson died in January 2015 after pleading with medics at Dundee’s Carseview Centre to admit him after two earlier suicide attempts.
A fatal accident inquiry into the circumstances of Mr Thomson’s death started yesterday at Dundee Sheriff Court.
The inquiry heard that father-of-one Mr Thomson, who was 28 when he died, had repeatedly seen his GP and been referred to the Carseview psychiatric unit in the weeks before his death.
Four doctors had decided not to detain him at the unit in the days before his death, despite him telling medics he was going to kill himself, the inquiry was told.
Mr Thomson’s mother, Mandy McLaren, 49, said she and her son went to the centre on January 23, 2015 – four days before he died – and had been told he ‘didn’t need follow-up care’. But on January 27 she and his twin brother found Mr Thomson’s body.
She said: ‘He wasn’t going to go to the appointment but I kept going on about his daughter and how much she needed him and he eventually came with me.
‘He was agitated – we got there and his legs were shaking.
‘The woman, a nurse, was asking Dale questions and he was saying he needed help and I told them that too.
‘She said we’ll put him on an antidepressant and he got up raging. He said it wasn’t depression. I walked out and I was asking about follow-up treatment and she said, “He doesn’t need it”.’
Mrs McLaren added: ‘He told them he had tried it [suicide] before – that should have been enough.
‘He told them how, when and what with and said he had the stuff to do it again.
‘That should have been a flag up saying this laddie needs help.’
Earlier, Dr Gordon McMillan, Mr Thomson’s GP, told the inquiry he was ‘surprised’ that he had not been admitted to Carseview. The inquiry continues. For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116123 or go to samaritans.org