William O’Connor was a man in his seventies who had been disabled for thirty years by rheumatoid arthritis and had intermittently suffered bouts of poor mental health due to a terrible trauma he had experienced while only 17. I had met William some years before and he had told me that Don was more like a son than a nephew to him. During that visit I had helped Don move a bed downstairs and into the living room as William could no longer make it to his bedroom.  It made for a pitiful sight as I helped Don lift his uncle onto his bed.  

When Don found William he was in a bad state: he was shaking uncontrollably as he sat on the edge of his bed and wanted to know why the guards had searched his home; why they had asked him about his solicitor; and why Don had been arrested. He complained of heartburn and said that he hadn’t eaten since the guards had called and it was obvious to Don that William’s health was quickly deteriorating. Don then made a number of urgent calls from his uncle’s house and with the aid of William’s CPN a hospital bed was secured for him the following day. However, within hours of his admission William suffered a heart attack. At first Don considered it fortuitous that his uncle had been in hospital at the time until the doctors informed him that they could tell by his blood readings that this was in fact his second cardiac arrest within 48 hours. In not heeding Don’s warnings of William’s fragile health, the guards had put an elderly disabled man’s life in peril. William had survived – but only just.