A DEMENTIA sufferer’s medication could have contributed to a “cardiac event” according to his GP, a court heard yesterday.

GP Sushma Ohja said she was called to the Mountleigh Care Home, Newbridge, to confirm the death of 52-year-old Alan Sayers, who was found dead in his room in on September 27, 2004.

She said she assumed she attended in her capacity as a police doctor, as she received a call from an officer to ask if she was completing the death certificate.

Ohja said she was given a history of Mr Sayers’ condition and his medication record and examined Mr Sayers’ body in his room.

The court heard he was on high blood pressure medication and anti-psychotics, both of which Ohja said could lead to heart irregularities, which led her to record cardiac arrest as cause of death.

Ohja said she had not recorded that Mr Sayers had crusted blood around his nose or soiled himself, as she did not believe there was any “foul play” and was relying on the information passed to her by staff at the home.

She admitted that in retrospect she should have given more detail and claimed that she had no formal training in completing death or cremation certificates.

Ohja said she only completed the death certificate, after a conversation with someone at the coroner's office, whom she believed was the coroner.

Prosecutor Gerard Elias said it was impossible for Ohja to have honestly answered the questions, as she could not be satisfied of the cause of death. Ohja said it was difficult to complete the forms unless the doctor was present at the time of death.

Giving evidence, care manager Enda Evans said there was no guidance from any external agency on how one-to-one care should be carried out and she believed the system was working as well as it could. She said there was no doubt that the staff knew what Mr Sayers’ care required.