Man's death 'will not be in vain'

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The mother of a Devon man who died after he absconded from an Exeter psychiatric unit has said she is not going to let his death be in vain.

Daniel Heard, a farmer's son from Devon, was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 18.

Over the next eight years, he was frequently admitted to the Cedars psychiatric hospital in Exeter and often absconded.

He was last admitted after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act in February 2004.

Search 'assumed'

He was in an agitated state 11 days later, but, despite being checked every 15 minutes, he walked out at 1420 GMT.

Just after 1600 GMT, he was seen about seven miles (11km) away, on the road near Stoke Canon, but minutes later he had disappeared - most likely through a gate into fields. It was bitterly cold and he was in shirt sleeves.

Daniel's mother Linda Kelly assumed the police, alerted by hospital staff, would launch a major search.

She said: "I imagined that police cars would be homing in on the spot and there would be sirens.

I still cannot comprehend how anyone thought he'd be OK Linda Kelly <a class="" href="/1/hi/england/devon/7790606.stm">More needed to stop absconding</a>

"I had in my head there would be police dogs there and the helicopter and everything would be happening."

She realised the next day that had not happened.

She said: "It was unbelievable. We'd reported it and nothing had happened.

"I still can't understand, still cannot comprehend how anyone thought he'd be OK."

In fact, a full-scale search was not mounted until 29 February, five days after Daniel went missing. But it was a passer-by who spotted his body late that afternoon.

Daniel was found by the River Culm, near Hele. In the five days since he had left hospital, temperatures had often gone below freezing.

Pathologists said they could not be certain how Daniel had died but hypothermia was likely to have played a part.

Awareness training

Nearly a year after he died, the Independent Police Complaints Commission criticised the way Devon and Cornwall Police had handled his disappearance. The force changed its search procedures and now trains officers in mental health awareness.

Eighteen months after Daniel's death, an independent inquiry panel concluded in September 2005 that Daniel's community care was a "disaster" and probably led to his decline. It said he probably would not have died if police and health staff had done their jobs properly.

Procedures and patient care have been improved, but the Cedars is not a secure unit. Research has shown that locked doors at such units increased aggression and self harm.

The doors at the unit remain unlocked during the day and patients are still going missing. On average it is one a week, although few come to harm.

But looking after people with mental illness remains a hard balancing act between providing therapeutic surroundings and keeping people safe. Daniel's mother hopes the changes made are enough.

Linda Kelly said: "If Daniel's death can help make things better and make it less likely to happen, then that makes his life count for more.

"I'm not going to let him die in vain. That's not going to happen."