Finding into death of Jamie Andrew Kowalewsky
Deceased
Jamie Andrew Kowalewsky
Demographics
27y, male
Date of death
2018-05-07
Finding date
2022-12-13
Cause of death
Global cerebral ischaemic injury in the setting of hanging
AI-generated summary
Jamie Kowalewsky, a 27-year-old with long-standing mental health issues including depression, substance abuse (ICE and cannabis), and previous suicide attempt, was voluntarily admitted to a low dependency psychiatric unit on 24 April 2018. Over four days, he was assessed as medium risk despite expressing suicidal and homicidal ideation. On 29 April 2018, after becoming upset during a phone call with his mother, he hanged himself using a bed sheet attached to a toilet door frame within approximately 30 minutes of last observation. Clinical experts disagreed about risk stratification and observation frequency. The coroner found psychiatric management was reasonable and appropriate, noting risk assessment is fluid and difficult to predict. No clear, cogent evidence of increasing risk warranting higher dependency admission was identified. The death was not found to be preventable.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Specialties
Error types
Contributing factors
- Major depression with substance use disorder
- Crystalline methylamphetamine and cannabis addiction
- Childhood sexual assault trauma
- Parental separation
- Grief over grandfather's death
- Ligature point accessibility in psychiatric unit bathroom
- Rapid deterioration in mental state on day of death
- Inadequate observation interval at time of death
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