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Mentally ill patient took his own life after celebrating 25th birthday, inquest told

Aaron Hill from Dundonald who took his own life on the evening of his 25th birthday
Aaron Hill from Dundonald who took his own life on the evening of his 25th birthday Aaron Hill from Dundonald who took his own life on the evening of his 25th birthday

THE mother of a mentally ill man wept in a coroner's court yesterday as she heard how he took his own life hours after cutting his birthday cake to celebrate turning 25.

Aaron Hill from Drumadoon Drive in Dundonald, who suffered from schizophrenia, was an inpatient at Knockbracken hospital, a specialist psychiatric facility on the outskirts of Belfast.

He was discovered in a bathroom attached to his bedroom by a staff member on February 20, 2014.

It emerged that he had stopped taking medication in the days before his death.

On the third day of an inquest into his death at Belfast Coroner's Court, a healthcare support worker told a jury how she found Mr Hill's body hanging as she made a hourly ward round at around 7.50pm.

Shirley-Ann Murray broke down in tears in the witness box as she described making a call to an internal emergency number and how an operator asked her if they required an ambulance.

"I said yes, we need help, tell everybody to come, tell everybody to come quick."

Ms Murray explained that she meant that an ambulance should come as well as staff from other parts of the hospital to help with their other patients.

However, the court heard that the ambulance service did not receive the emergency call until 30 minutes after Mr Hill was discovered, while an on-call doctor was not contacted until 40 minutes after he was found.

A registered nurse on duty that evening attempted to resuscitate Mr Hill by carrying out CPR while Ms Murray applied oxygen.

"We tried everything to get Aaron back but we couldn't," she told the court.

Ms Murray said she "didn't really know Aaron" as he had only been in the unit, known as the Dorothy Gardiner rehabilitation unit, for a short time.

However, she said she had seen him "a couple of times that day" and had passed him in the corridor after 7pm and asked him if he had got some of his birthday cake.

"He smiled at me and said yes, thank you", she said.

Coroner Suzanne Anderson asked Ms Murray how Mr Hill appeared and she said he seemed to be okay.

A legal representative for Mr Hill's family asked the healthcare supporter worker why she had called the internal emergency number as opposed to 999.

The lawyer produced health service guidance on "crash call policy" from 2012, which stated that 999 numbers should be contacted by Knockbracken staff in the event of an emergency situation.

Ms Murray said they had always contacted the internal emergency number but that had changed to the external 999 number since Mr Hill's death.

A health service lawyer asked Ms Murray about her experience in the health service.

She told him she had worked in Knockbracken for more than 20 years and had been based in the Gardiner unit for the past five years, during which time she rarely had to phone the emergency number.

She described her discovery of Mr Hill as "something she will never forget".

"It was terrible," she said.

The inquest will continue today.