A coroner's jury has recommended body-fluid samples taken from people admitted to hospital for unnatural deaths or injuries should be automatically stored for more than the current practice of seven days.
Jurors spent the week hearing about the circumstances surrounding the death of Collan Kohalyk, who hanged himself in a jail cell after being arrested for domestic violence on Dec. 24, 2010.
Kohalyk, 36, died 10 days later in hospital. Jurors heard he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had a history of alcohol and drug abuse.
Pathologist Dr. Susan Tebbutt testified she wasn't able to determine what drugs were in Koha-lyk's system because the blood and urine samples taken when he was admitted to hospital were destroyed after seven days, the practice unless the RCMP has obtained a court order to retain them.
"These samples need to be treated differently," Tebbutt said.
"I absolutely have a problem with that because I know we can't get those samples back. To me, we are losing valuable evidence and I think we can do better."
Tebbutt said all she knows is that when Koha-lyk was admitted, his samples tested positive for an unknown opioid.
Tebbutt said the policy is in place because those samples are often not viable after seven days, except for toxicology tests. She recommended to the jury that these critical samples be frozen for at least a month to ensure they remain viable.
