High caffeine levels contributed to prisoner's death: Coroner

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High caffeine levels contributed to prisoner's death: Coroner

By Kristian Silva

Caffeine from the equivalent of "20 espresso coffees" contributed to a Queensland prisoner's death in custody, a coroner has found.

Despite a thorough investigation, authorities have no idea how 51-year-old prisoner John Michael Spence was able to ingest the caffeine unnoticed and found no evidence of the drug in his cell.

 Court

Court Credit: Louie Douvis

Mr Spence was being held at the Capricornia Correctional Centre near Rockhampton when he died suddenly on September 4, 2013.

A specialist pathologist found a reasonable cause of death was cardiovascular disease and seizures while his caffeine levels were extremely high.

Another doctor said she believed the caffeine levels, at about 80mg/kg, could not have come from coffee alone.

"She opined that one would need to drink 20 espresso coffees within a very short period, or ingest in excess of 20 NoDoz tablets (caffeine tablets) to obtain the level seen in Mr Spence," Coroner Terry Ryan said in his report.

Foul play or assistance from a third party was ruled out.

Mr Spence, who was of poor health and was regularly homeless, had a history of seizures. His fits led to regular "code blue" alerts in prison where he would be treated by nurses.

A code blue was called about 5.25pm on the day he died, before a second episode occurred 15 minutes later.

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"Mr Spence suffered another 'pseudo-seizure' episode and was described to be behaving bizarrely, jumping and dancing around," Dr Ryan said.

About three hours later Mr Spence was found dead in his cell.

A search of the cell failed to produce any evidence as to how Mr Spence managed to consume so much caffeine.

Prison records showed he had purchased 100g caffeine cans from the centre's canteen in the month before his death, however they were not found.

"Unfortunately, despite extreme investigation, I have not been able to find the source of the caffeine, and how it came to be in Mr Spence's blood cannot be explained," Dr Ryan said.

Dr Ryan said correctional centre staff's response to Mr Spence's seizure on the day he died was reasonable given his regular episodes, and said they could not have been expected to know about the high levels of caffeine in his blood.

However he said there should have been a better care plan in place for the prisoner, which included a clinical observations regime.

Dr Ryan said he believed issues with the centre's procedures and medical care of prisoners in the centre were appropriate.

"I am satisfied that they are a significant step forward towards ensuring future deaths in similar circumstances will be prevented," he said.

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