Paramedics 'frightened' over police response to poisoning by nerve agent novichok, inquiry told
Paramedic Ben Channon describes how Charlie Rowley who had been exposed to novichok was acting "grossly abnormal" and "making noises very much like a cow" with "saliva coming from his mouth".
Friday 18 October 2024 18:45, UK
A paramedic has told an inquiry he had a "heated" conversation with police and was "fearful for their safety" after they doubted a novichok victim had been poisoned by the nerve agent.
Ben Channon has described his concerns during the treatment of Charlie Rowley who was exposed to the chemical weapon in Wiltshire in June 2018.
He was speaking at the inquiry into the death of Mr Rowley's partner Dawn Sturgess, who received a fatal dose of novichok.
On Friday, Mr Channon told the inquiry that officers were "overly confident that this was likely a drug overdose as opposed to anything else".
He added that when police attended Mr Rowley's address in Amesbury, he was "fearful for their safety and advised them that they needed to don appropriate personal protective equipment".
Mr Channon said he was "quite frightened" and asked what was making the officers think it was something other than nerve agent poisoning.
Recalling conversations with police, he said: "I remember them becoming heated, but not rude, as to 'we're really concerned, please could you share some information with us as to why you're so certain that this is not nerve agent poisoning'."
Ms Sturgess, 44, died after being exposed to novichok which was left in a discarded perfume bottle.
It is believed the bottle containing the killer nerve agent was dumped by members of Russia's military intelligence squad, who are alleged to have targeted former spy Sergei Skripal in nearby Salisbury a few months earlier in March 2018.
Moscow has .
Mr Skripal, his daughter Yulia and police officer Nick Bailey all survived that attack, as did Ms Sturgess's boyfriend, Mr Rowley, who had unwittingly given her the bottle.
Temporary police sergeant Ian McKerlie told the inquiry that paramedics treating Mr Rowley were "insistent he was presenting with the same symptoms as the Salisbury incident" and described them as "agitated".
When challenged by Emilie Pottle, counsel to the inquiry, Sergeant McKerlie said he "never questioned their medical judgment" but while he thought the cause was a drugs overdose he began having "reservations" when paramedics became "quite insistent".
Read more:
'Pure chance' Dawn Sturgess exposed to novichok
Novichok nerve agent: What exactly is it?
Miracle recovery: How the Skripals survived
Earlier in his evidence on Friday, Mr Channon described Mr Rowley as acting "grossly abnormal... making noises very much like a cow... [with] profuse amounts of saliva coming from his mouth".
He added his "immediate concern" was he had been poisoned, having worked locally after the Salisbury poisonings a few months before, and the symptoms were "not the normal presentation of a drugs overdose".
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Paramedics administered Naloxone to treat a potential opioid overdose but it "did not have any effect", the inquiry heard.
Mr Rowley was then given atropine which would treat the symptoms of nerve agent poisoning, the paramedic added.
The inquiry continues.