Notes were shredded, inquest into death of Victoria Nye hears

Dr Andes Ekelund said he let patient Victoria Nye walk out from Southampton’s Department of Psychiatry (DoP), where he was a locum, because she was not ill enough to be kept in.

Dr Ekelund, who was in charge of the 22-year-old’s care, told Southampton Coroner’s Court Victoria wanted to leave against his advice.

Victoria, who had been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder, was admitted on a voluntary basis for treatment at the DoP after throwing a box of kittens out of her 13th floor flat window.

Under cross examination Dr Ekelund confirmed destroying notes and not filling out paperwork requiring a patient to sign if they discharged themselves against their psychiatrist’s advice.

He said he shredded the notes but that all the information was contained in a report written after Victoria’s death in March 2010. The paperwork was not filled in because he said it was “simply not needed”.

The inquest heard how Victoria’s dad, Graham, who was due to give evidence today, claims his daughter was discharged against her will after being told she was not mentally ill. He claims this was despite his desperate pleas to keep her in for her own safety after she rang him distressed about being released.

Hours later Victoria, who previously told a member of staff she had considered leaping from her flat window, was found dead beneath her flat in Dumbleton Towers, Thornhill.

The inquest heard that a note made by a fellow healthcare worker recorded that the “ward [was] keen to discharge”.

But Dr Ekelund said he only wanted Victoria to leave when an alternative home had been found away from where the kittens died.

He said that during her twoweek stay on the ward he changed Victoria’s diagnoses from a bi-polar illness, which involves extreme highs and lows, to an emotionally unstable personality disorder.

He said: “I never saw any evidence of depression that needed treatment.”

Proceeding