Dementia patient, 84, died in handcuffs

In another incident described in the report, a detainee who utilized wheelchair following a stroke had been handcuffed “for no evident reason” in the course of a trip to hospital.

And in November 2012 a dying guy undergoing an angioplasty – a method to unblock or widen arteries – was handcuffed even though sedated in hospital. The restraints were only eliminated 7 hours before his death.

Mr Hardwick explained: “These are shocking situations where a sense of humanity was misplaced.”

Mr Dvorzac’s death emerged at the time but it was not previously identified that he had been handcuffed at his death.

“Detention seemed to have been utilised as an inappropriate default for a man who required social care,” stated the chief inspector’s report.

“The 84-12 months-previous Canadian man had been refused entry to the United kingdom at Gatwick airport on January 23, 2013. Right after a remain in hospital, he had been detained at the establishment, exactly where on January 30 a doctor had declared him unfit for detention.”

The medical doctor described him as “frail” and explained he was struggling Alzheimer’s ailment.

In early February the report mentioned an attempt to eliminate Mr Dvorzac had been named off following a physician had declared him unfit to fly, and he had been returned to Harmondsworth, which holds 600 detainees and is operated by a personal business, GEO.

He was taken to hospital on February eight and then made a return pay a visit to to hospital two days later.

“He had been in handcuffs for roughly five hours when he died, nevertheless wearing them,” mentioned the report.

Mr Hardwick concluded: “A main concern is an inadequate concentrate on the needs of the most vulnerable detainees, which includes elderly and sick males, people at threat of self harm by means of meals refusal, and other folks whose physical or mental well being situations created them potentially unfit for detention.”

Mark Harper, the immigration minister, stated: “The use of restraint in this case looks totally unjustified and should not be repeated. Clear directions have been issued making clear that restraint need to only come about where absolutely required.”

He additional: “Clearly, efficiency by the contractor working Harmondsworth has been beneath the high standard anticipated.

“This report can make a amount of suggestions that we will be taking forward and I count on to see substantial improvement. We will be scrutinising our contractor’s functionality closely.”

Dementia patient, 84, died in handcuffs