A CORONER has unearthed serious shortcomings in the medical care given to a Corowa sex offender who died during a stint in prison.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Former Beechworth Prison officer and Corowa truck driver James William Steele, 63, died on April 22, 2013.
He had been serving a five year and three month sentence at Langi Kal Kal jail for an “assortment” of sex offences and was undertaking farm work as part of a rehabilitation program when he died.
He was herding cattle on Langi Kal Kal Road and collapsed, hitting his head as he fell.
Despite repeated attempts to revive him using CPR and a cardiac defibrillator, he was pronounced dead an hour after collapsing.
Steele had a history of medical problems and missed an appointment six days before his death after failing to hear an announcement.
Dr Robert Lefkovits found the prison treatment was “not consistent with the care that would be expected … in the public sector”.
He was critical of the medical treatment and management of Mr Steele while in jail, including his uncontrolled hypertension and poorly controlled diabetes.
He said documents suggested the treatment in the months leading to his death were “not up to the expected standard of treatment of patients with such high risk for cardiovascular complications, including sudden death”.
“If a more vigorous approach to control his risk factors would have been undertaken on a consistent basis, it is possible the outcome would have been different,” he said.
Steele’s family said they wanted changes to be made, which would be hard in the prison system.
“It was our hope that things would change in the prison system so that prisoners could get medical attention when needed, also to be monitored more closely for serious ailments,” they said.
Prison medical officer Dr Edgardo Lou, who provided medical treatment to Steele, said there were problems accessing health services in jail.
