© Tyrrell familyMichael Tyrrell handcuffed to his hospital bed the day before he died. His daughter took the photograph.
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Guardian investigation has revealed prisoners who are seriously and terminally ill are routinely chained in hospitals despite posing no security threat.
A prisoner who was clinically brain dead remained in handcuffs in an ambulance taking him to another hospital. Another severely disabled prisoner was also chained. Glenda Jackson, his MP, said the practice was "disgusting and horrific."
According to the prison service, inmates who require treatment at outside hospitals are risk assessed before decisions are made as to whether to restrain them or not. But a
Guardian investigation shows the use of restraints to be the starting point for prisoners taken to hospital, irrespective of their medical condition.
Examples discovered include a prisoner, Michael Tyrrell, 65, dying from cancer and too weak to move; 22-year-old Kyal Gaffney, diagnosed with leukaemia, who had suffered a brain haemorrhage; and Daniel Roque Hall, 30, suffering Friedreich's ataxia, a wasting disease that has left him barely able to use his arms or legs. All three were chained in hospital and guarded by three prison officers each.
Tyrrell, who was nearing the end of a 29-year sentence for drug offences and regarded as a model prisoner, was taken to hospital from Frankland prison, near Durham earlier this year. His daughter Maria said she and her sisters were horrified to see their father in chains when they visited him in hospital.
She said the idea of her father running away was absurd. "He couldn't even prop himself up in that hospital bed. I was pulling him up so he could breathe." The restraints were only removed hours before Tyrrell died.