Daniel Fairman was enjoying a hiking trip with friends by Lochinver, Scotland when he was bitten by a tick and developed Lyme disease. Within weeks, he was struggling to sleep and gradually became more unhappy and irritable.
On a subsequent family holiday with his siblings Dan, a university-educated property developer, was “quite ratty” with Jane which surprised her “as he was charm personified”. His sudden descent into mental illness became particularly apparent to his younger brother, Nick, as they worked together.
“Dan became so unhappy he sought psychiatric help and was prescribed drugs, but we didn’t know what drugs and they didn’t help anyway,” Jane said.
Dan had lived in London but started staying at his mum Valerie’s house in Stock, a village in Essex, where Nick also lived, with a nearby office where the pair worked. He was admitted to The Priory Hospital in Chelmsford, on 11 April 2018 suffering from delusional paranoia, yet was never sectioned.
“At no point from that time onwards did he get back to his normal persona. We’d go and visit him, telling him he was in hospital being cared for but he accused us of tricking him and insisting he was in prison. It was a horrible and distressing time.”
‘Daniel was failed by those who were supposed to look after him and it ended in tragedy,” his sister Jane said.
“I’d asked them not to transfer him that far away, as I lived in London at the time and mum was 30 miles away from the hospital and we needed to visit him. Dan just thought he was being taken away to prison and saw it as ‘part of the punishment’ – absolutely deluded and paranoid. As soon as he got there, he tried to take his own life – and even wrote a book about how he would do it,” Jane said.
Hospital discharge
On 15 August, Jane was called into a meeting with Dan and his psychiatrist at the Colchester hospital, who claimed her brother was “getting better” and that it was time to discuss his discharge. According to Jane, when the doctor asked her brother about having suicidal thoughts, Dan said he would not contemplate that and hoped the medication would soon start to help him.
“Ruth and I took Dan out for a walk that day. We tried to raise his spirits by telling him the doctors think he’s better and that we would make it all work, but he was like a ticking time bomb; his paranoia and delusion was clear. We just didn’t know what to do. It felt like mental health services had just run out of ideas, needed the bed, and it was over to us to look after him. He lasted two nights before he killed himself at my mum’s house, where Nick found him.”
All died either under the care of EPUT, the North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT), or their predecessor organisations, or within three months of being discharged. Hearings at the Inquiry resume on 7 July.
The Lampard Inquiry
“If my brother were a puppy, he would have been given more checks as to where he was going to live. There was no aftercare. If my brother had cancer or had a heart attack and was going into the care of family, there would have been advice for them on what to look out for,” Jane said.
Dan was just 53 years old when he died. ‘He was the life and soul of the party, but then everything changed,’ Jane said.
Jane said mental health services remain the “poor relation” to the rest of the NHS, which leaves “gaping holes” in people’s care. In Dan’s case, there was no proper risk assessment, no proper support for the family and no advice given.
“All these mental health deaths [that the Inquiry is investigating] come with inquests, and there are supposed to be lessons learned, but mental health services are incredibly defensive following a death, and that is not going to help anybody. It is about making the system better, but there is no accountability. The things that could have made Dan’s situation were quite simple and straightforward, but he was failed and it ended in tragedy.”
“To feel as if your loved one was treated with less aftercare than an animal speaks to the importance of this inquiry and the urgent need for interim recommendations to be made during the hearing process. If changes are not made and lessons are not learnt, as a matter of urgency, we will continue to see further deaths at the hands of the state. This cannot, and must not, be viewed as anything less than a national emergency.”
NHS England has been approached for comment.
In the UK contact Samaritans on 116 123 for 24/7 support or email jo@samaritans.org. If you have lost a loved one, you can also call Cruse Bereavement Support on 0808 808 1677.
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