Prison officers who found an Aboriginal man slumped and unresponsive in his cell tried everything to revive him before his death, a coroner has heard.
Clinton Austin, a Gunditjmara and Wiradjuri man, died at Loddon Prison in Victoria on September 11, 2022.
Prison officer Steven Kennedy entered Mr Austin’s cell when he didn’t present for a count and found him slumped over on his bed, chin on chest as though he was “sleeping in an uncomfortable position”.
Mr Kennedy told an inquest into Mr Austin’s death he noticed the 38-year-old was cold when he touched his knee to rouse him.
Mr Kennedy said in a “matter of seconds” after he went into Mr Austin’s cell he’d called a ‘code black’, which signals an emergency.
“I noticed that he wasn’t breathing … there was no movement in his stomach or anything like that so that’s when I called the code black,” he said.
After the code black was called, prison officers, including Mr Kennedy, tried to get Mr Austin off the bed to begin CPR, but had to wait for assistance to lift him.
CPR was attempted on the bed but was not effective because of the softness of the mattress.
Mr Kennedy said it felt like a “really long time” for enough people to arrive in the cell to move Mr Austin off the bed.
“However, I know it was quite quick,” he said.
“It could have been 30 seconds, it could have been a minute.”
When senior prison officer Heath Martin arrived at Mr Austin’s cell he checked for a pulse and told the court he also noticed Mr Austin was cold to the touch.
“There was a split second where it ran through my mind that CPR … it may even be too late for CPR,” he said.
“When we went to move him, he gurgled and appeared to take some sort of breath and that’s when I made the decision that maybe we have a crack at trying to revive him.”
Mr Kennedy said the feedback the officers were given to their response were “positive”.
“Everything we did was good in the sense of a bad outcome,” he said.
An emotional Mr Martin said he was comfortable with the way he and his team responded to the situation.
“We tried everything – myself and my team – tried everything we could to revive Clinton on that day,” he said.
The inquest was previously told by a fellow prisoner Mr Austin had been vomiting two nights prior to his death.
Mr Kennedy said he’d had a short conversation with Mr Austin the day before his death and told the inquest he’d looked fine.
When asked if he could be mistaken about whether he’d spoken to Mr Austin a day before his death or prior to that, Mr Kennedy said it was possible.
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