STOKE VICTIM ARRESTED AS A DRUNK

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We all know that some police officers are outright stupid and indifferent towards those persons they arrest. In this article, I will give you an example of stupidity and indifference to a man in Crossfield Alberta, a province in in Canada.

Alan Ruel’s life changed forever the day he was arrested by RCMP police officers for being drunk in a public place even though he says he hadn’t had a drink that day. In what he appeared to be in a drunken state, he entered a bar to visit the owner, who was a friend. His clothing was dishevelled, his pants undone and his vehicle was parked on the sidewalk.

According to police reports, a bar employee assumed that Ruel had arrived drunk since Ruel had only had a glass of water at the bar.  He kicked Ruel out and called the police. The arresting officer reported smelling alcohol on Ruel’s breath. He obviously lied because Ruel hadn’t had a drink that day.

Officers put the man in a jail cell and kept him in the cell alone for  more than 18 hours  while  virtually ignoring his deteriorating condition as he was suffering from a  massive stroke, according to to doctors who examined him later.

RCMP surveillance video from the Airdrie detachment, obtained by Go Public through Ruel’s lawyer, recorded the 18 hours and 18 minutes he was in the cell his problem was completely ignored by the police in the station.

As the hours passed, the video seems to show his condition worsening. At one point, he dragged himself to the door and banged  on it in. Ruel says he was attempting to get the guard’s attention.

The surveillance video has no sound. “I begged for a glass of water at one point, and nothing. I just thought, ‘This is it, your life is over.’ Little did I know that it really is over to a certain extent. I’m still breathing, but what I know of my life before this is gone,” Ruel said.

A police manual says officers and guards are required to look for signs of drowsiness that, that may be an indicator of serious illness or injury, including  stroke.

According to police records, that’s when officers and guards realized something may be wrong. Paramedics arrived and transported Ruel to hospital about an hour later.  By then  it was too late to bring him back to normal. The neurologist’s report says that earlier medical intervention may have changed that outcome for Ruel.

The images in the video shows in disturbing detail how he repeatedly collapsed, sat slumped in the corner for hours, and was left lying helpless on the concrete floor, half naked, one side of his body twitching while the other side was paralyzed by the stroke.

“It was probably one of the worst days of my life. I was absolutely terrified. I was scared. You’re alone. You’re cold. You don’t know why you’re there. There’s people that are supposed to help you.  I actually thought I was going to die at one point, and the thing that scared me is that I was going to die alone,” Ruel, 73, told Go Public

Now I can appreciate why any police officer looking at the video screen would think that his movements in the cell appeared to be that of a drunk person.  However, if they had gone to his cell, they would have come to a different conclusion especially if he described the movements he was going through.

Experiencing weakness and numbness of the face, leg or arm, commonly on one side of the body is a sign of a stroke. Trouble in walking, loss of balance or control is another sign of a stroke. Now that may look like the sign of a drunken person but if they visited the cell, the stricken man might have told them what he was really happening  to him.

When a person is having a stroke, every second counts. And what you do in those critical moments can potentially help save someone’s life.   

A stroke is often described as a “brain attack.” Part of the brain is robbed of the oxygen and blood supply it needs to function, because a blood vessel to part of the brain either has a clot or bursts.

The longer a stroke goes untreated, the more brain damage can occur. But there are treatments that can be given if a person reaches the hospital in time.

I don’t know ow long he suffered from the stroke but he probably got it while he was driving his car. When the police arrived, that is when he should have been taken to the hospital or at least have called for an ambulance. Since he spent 18 hours in a cell without any treatment, the damage to his brain is too severe to bring him back to normal.

His lawyer is suing the police force, the government agencies that run it, and the officers involved. for six million dollars. That won’t cure him but it will pay for the medical care he will need for the rest of his life.

The former offshore drilling consultant had no plans to retire before his stroke, says no one will hire him now,

Stupidity and indifference has serious financial consequences.

Certainly, the stupid senor police officer in the police station on duty that day should be fired.  

Almost nine years ago, 43-year-old Raymond Silverfox was ridiculed and mocked by RCMP officers during the final hours of his life in the Whitehorse detachment’s drunk tank.

A  coroner’s inquest found that Silverfox vomited dozens of times in his cell during the 13 hours he was in custody, but officers assumed he was drunk and didn’t get medical attention until someone noticed he wasn’t moving anymore. .

Silverfox died hours later in hospital of acute pneumonia. “There have been several high-profile deaths in cells in recent years, so this is not a kind of a shadow issue that’s just now emerging,” to Silverfox, Robert Stone, and Debralee Chrisjohn, all of whom died in police custody.