Ice addict ‘gouged out eyes and ate - PDF document

Ice addict ‘gouged out eyes and ate them’   5 DAYS AGO MAY 23, 2015 10:26AM Australia's ice epidemic AN ice addict in a hospital emergency department gouged out his own eyeballs and ate them, a Federal Liberal MP has revealed. The horrific story was revealed yesterday at an Ice Summit on the Central Coast organised by the Express Advocate to address the epidemic in the region. Dobell Federal Liberal MP Karen McNamara relayed the story as she opened the summit before a packed auditorium this morning. “There is nothing at all recreational ab out this drug,” Ms McNamara said. “Let me tell you a story that demonstrates this ... about a young boy taken into an emergency department for treatment who gouged out his own eyeballs and ate them,” she said. “We have to get these kinds of stories out to young people — this is not a recreational drug,” she said. A spokeswoman for Ms McNamara later said the incident occurred at John Hunter Hospital at Newcastle and that she was in the room when the story was related to Ms McNamara by a frontline emergency s ervices officer who wished to remain anonymous. The Central Coast Ice Summit comes a week after the Organised Crime Squad smashed a Sydney ice ring seizing almost 170kg of ice worth an estimated $110m. Seven men were arrested last Friday after connected raids in the inner - city and northwest that unearthed a homemade drug laboratory in an apartment and 17 kilograms of ice. The men, aged 21 - 31, were charged with offences related t o large commercial drug supply and participating in a criminal group. They’ve been denied bail. Other stories to emerge from the Central Coast over the past two weeks reveal the extent of the epidemic that continues embattle police, paramedics and emergency department personnel. Gosford and Wyong hospitals head of emergency departments Dr Kate Porges told the Express Advocate this week that “killer doses” were needed to sedate ice users. “The doses are six times what we’d give the average person,” Dr Porges said. “If I gave you this sort of dosage, you’d be dead.” Dr Porges said doctors and nurses were also regularly assaulted with most assaults going unreported because staff were too busy to deal with the paperwork. Paramedics revealed that ice users displaying “super human” strength were threatening the lives of paramedics while an ED doctor revealed “killer doses” of drugs were being used to sedate ice users in states of psychosis. NSW Ambulance Toukley station man ager Dave Morris said it took 12 people to subdue an out of control addict. Mr Morris said the man weighed only 60kg but 12 men, including “strong NSW police officers, security staff and paramedics to hold down and sedate the violent ice user”. A John Hunter Hospital spokesperson said she could not find a record of the eye gouging incident, but did find evidence of a similar incident that occurred more than a decade ago. “We have not been able to find a recent record of this incident,” she said. “There was a similar incident in the hospital’s Emergency Department more than a decade ago, however in the interest of their privacy, we are unable to provide any further information or confirm a link to the drug crystal methamphetamine without the patient’s con sent.” She said she would need more information including the patient’s name and the date to be able to confirm or deny the incident occurred. A NSW Health spokesman said more information was needed to be able to confirm whether the incident occurred in an other hospital in NSW. A NSW Police media spokeswoman said without more details it would be difficult to confirm if any such incident took place. In response, a spokesman for Mrs McNamara said the information was relayed directly to her office by a front l ine emergency services officer. “This person received the information from her colleagues who witnessed the event at a Newcastle hospital,” he said.