Coronial
TASmental health

Coroner's Finding: Harris, Stephen Russell

Deceased

Stephen Russell Harris

Demographics

56y, male

Date of death

2014-12-18

Finding date

2017-05-04

Cause of death

Probable cardiac arrhythmia

AI-generated summary

Stephen Russell Harris, a 56-year-old man with a long history of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, died of probable cardiac arrhythmia while an involuntary patient at Spencer Clinic on 18 December 2014. He presented with agitation and head injury after missing his monthly antipsychotic injection and likely becoming non-compliant with oral medications. An ECG showed apparent QT prolongation (later determined to be a machine error). He was given clonazepam and paliperidone depot, settled, and was found not breathing at 12:30am despite normal observations at 11:30pm. The coroner found the care appropriate and made no recommendations, though noted paliperidone carries possible arrhythmia risk in susceptible individuals, and Mr Harris had additional risk factors: obesity, age, smoking, and cardiac hypertrophy.

AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.

Contributing factors

  • Medication non-compliance
  • Missed antipsychotic injection
  • Obesity
  • Smoking
  • Cardiac hypertrophy
  • Cardiomegaly
  • Age
  • Paliperidone use (possible arrhythmia risk)
  • Mental health relapse
Full text

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