Inquest examines Graylands deaths

After years of working, travelling and starting nursing studies, a shift in Kevin Maxwell Collins' mental health saw the gentle man become psychotic and aggressive.

By the time he died at 50, Mr Collins was an involuntary patient at Graylands Hospital.

He died at the facility in August 2010 from bronchitis.

Yesterday, an inquest investigating the deaths of 10 patients at Graylands was told Mr Collins - a diagnosed chronic paranoid schizophrenic - had been resistant to his usual treatment medication and was switched to Clozapine shortly before his death.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Melanie Smith, told the inquest though Clozapine could lower immunity, this was only for bacterial infections, not viral infections such as the one that led to his death.

Mr Collins had suffered chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, sleep difficulties and was a heavy smoker, the inquest was told.

The night he died, he was being monitored every four hours because of a temperature and feeling unwell, Ms Smith said. But he had refused to co-operate during one of the inspections. Nurses found him gasping for breath but he could not be revived. The inquest continues.