'How does something like this happen?': Soleiman Faqiri calm, cooperative before violent restraint, nurse says
CBC
As Soleiman Faqiri's body lay on a jail cell floor, nurse Cathy Goard pleaded with a paramedic to do one final round of chest compressions, hoping against hope that he might be revived.
"I'm begging you with my life for his mother and father," she told the paramedic.
Goard, a health care manager at the Central East Correction Centre, knew by then there was no bringing the 30-year-old back. Still, the memory of speaking to his family and their belief that their son would get the help he needed if arrested, meant she had to try everything for her conscience.
"I was praying for this man's life," she said.
Jurors at the inquest for Faqiri heard audio of the nurse's interview, given as part of an internal investigation by the jail five months after Faqiri's Dec. 15, 2016 death. Goard herself was not present at the inquest Thursday.
During the approximately 90-minute long recording, Goard told the interviewer that Faqiri had been calm, compliant and attentive in the hours before he was violently restrained by guards.
Goard had been off work for several days and said she assessed Faqiri in person on Dec. 13. By that point, a doctor inside the jail had ordered that he be moved to a segregation unit for further monitoring, and Goard wanted to see for herself if he could feasibly be moved.
WATCH | Guard's video captures Soleiman Faqiri's condition days before his death:
The interviewer said part of the review involved asking why Faqiri hadn't simply be sent to the hospital given his condition. Goard replied that there had been problems with doing so in the past, with people taken there quickly being sent back.
Given Faqiri was in the throes of a mental health "emergency" prior to his death, he should have nevertheless been taken to a hospital, a forensic psychiatrist said Wednesday during his expert testimony.
Goard said she felt Faqiri was cooperative, maintained good eye contact, and that a transfer to the maximum segregation unit would be possible. The plan was to get him into a wheelchair, cover him with a sheet, get him into the shower and then into his cell.
Faqiri seemed to respond well when told of the plan, and told he would be given a Qur'an and food after the move.
Sometime after 1 p.m. on Dec. 15 — the day that would Faqiri's last — staff moved him as planned to the segregation unit known as 8-seg. Nearby inmates were asked to be quiet, staff were asked to give clear, short instructions and to engage Faqiri calmly, Goard said, and "everything was going according to plan."
Upstairs in 8-seg, however, correctional officers weren't happy to hear about the new arrival.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
Chief Gary Quisses says Neskantaga First Nation's evacuation lasted 46 days — but he wasn't ready to bring his community members home.
A man is dead after a house fire in Scarborough on Friday morning, Toronto police said.
They call it the big screen, but this movie theatre experience is pretty small.
Students at Charlottetown Rural High School are preparing to take the stage at the P.E.I. Brewing Company on Friday for their School of Rock 2025 Showcase.
Improper disposal of smoking materials was found to be the cause of a fire that displaced tenants of public housing from a Yellowknife apartment building in March.
Man who considered assisted death after bedsore tells coroner's inquiry 'you have to fight' for care
Among the dozens of people who testified at a coroner's inquiry into the death of Normand Meunier, Claude Labelle may be the only one who really understands what he went through.
As Toronto braces for another hotter than usual summer, some climate policy experts and advocates say a chief heat officer could help the city adapt to extreme temperatures faster.
The Ontario government's move to add 2,600 teacher college spaces will open 200 new entry slots to Western University's education program over the next two years.
In the aftermath of his younger brother's sudden death last year, Allan Oliver says he was surprised when a family friend set up a GoFundMe to help pay for the funeral.
While the future of the stalled Bay du Nord project has yet to be decided, an Equinor Canada representative says there are positive signs for the project's future, including a major contract that the oil giant will award in the next few months.
Halifax councillors have heard new details about a proposed hydro energy storage project at a former gold mine in the municipality.
New Brunswickers might have noticed a haze in the sky over the last couple of days.
Quebec Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge said he isn't ruling out the possibility of cutting services for non-permanent residents in the province if the federal government fails to halve its annual immigration targets.