Norman Palmer's family challenge coroner's conclusion
By Sam Strangeways
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Kathleen and Norman Palmer before his death last year.
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Missing body parts victim Norman Palmer was a "man who wanted to live" and was in no way responsible for his own death, a court heard yesterday.
Lawyer Jeffrey Elkinson, representing Mr. Palmer's widow Kathleen and his two sisters, told a judicial review that a coroner's conclusion that he died of natural causes contributed to by self neglect had been a source of "great distress" to his family and friends.
He asked Puisne Judge Geoffrey Bell to quash the self neglect "rider" in Coroner Khamisi Tokunbo's ruling, describing it as "unreasonable and illogical".
But lawyers separately representing the Coroner, Mr. Palmer's GP Monica Hoefert and Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) contested the application, arguing that the rider should remain.
Mr. Palmer, 57, an asthmatic with a 40-year-old gunshot wound in his neck, died on April 12 last year in the Emergency Room at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital after three doctors struggled to save him.
Many of his organs and tissues were found to be missing after his body was flown to Britain for cremation,
The self-employed Brit, who had lived in Bermuda for decades, got into severe breathing difficulty at his home in Leafy Way, Paget, on April 12.
A six-day inquest into his death held in January heard that he attended the emergency room six days before with "rasping from the throat" on the advice of his physician, Dr. Hoefert.
He was told by the doctor who saw him at ER on April 6 that his condition was potentially life-threatening, that he should see an ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT) the next day at the latest, and that he should return to the hospital if his condition deteriorated.
His wife tried to get him an appointment with an ENT through Dr. Hoefert's office but couldn't get a slot until April 18. Mr. Tokunbo said that after seeing Dr. Hoefert on April 9, Mr. Palmer believed [or was confused about whether] she disagreed with the ER doctor's diagnosis.
Mr. Tokunbo concluded that Mr. Palmer's failure to let himself be admitted to hospital on April 6 or to return to ER in the days after amounted to a "gross failure to obtain basic medical attention".
Mr. Elkinson said yesterday that such a finding was "extreme" and that the Coroner had misdirected himself.
Mr. Palmer, he argued, did what any reasonable person would do by going to his GP, who had cared for him for many years, and relying upon her advice. Mr. Elkinson said that reliance amounted to a dependency.
"He should have got a better doctor, is effectively the verdict," said Mr. Elkinson. He said Mr. Palmer could have been saved on April 9 if Dr. Hoefert had told him to return to ER.
David Kessaram, for Dr. Hoefert, who now works in Cayman and did not attend the inquest, said the rider to Mr. Tokunbo's verdict was entirely justified.
He said Mr. Palmer could have gone back to the hospital at any point to see an ENT but chose not to. He said the Coroner had not found as fact anything about what Dr. Hoefert told him to do. "What went on between Dr. Hoefert and the deceased in her office is a complete blank," he said.
Delroy Duncan, for BHB, said the issue was whether or not putting trust and confidence in a doctor created a "relationship of dependency as a matter of law".
He added: "I would submit that there has to be a distinction between dependency and reliance." The same point was made by Crown counsel Shakira Dill, representing the Coroner.
Mr. Justice Bell reserved judgement to a later date. A second inquest into the death of Mr. Palmer is still to be held in the UK.
