Sergei Skripal saved after correct drug was mistakenly administed

The inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess entered its fourth day on Thursday, October 17. The hearing heard evidence from emergency services about the response to both poisonings in 2018.

Dawn's death in July, followed the attempted murder of former spy Mr Skripal, his daughter Yulia and later on ex-police officer Nick Bailey, who were all poisoned in March that year

The pair were found unconscious in The Maltings on March 4 and ambulance crews assessed them both to be suffering from an opiate overdose. 

UPDATES: Dawn Sturgess Inquiry at Salisbury Guildhall enters fourth day

Segei and Yulia Skripal feeding the ducks on March 4 (Image: Operation Verbasco/Crown Copyright) Wayne Darch, Deputy Director of Operations at the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, confirmed to the inquiry that symptoms of an opiate overdose overlap with those of an organophosphate - nerve agent - poisoning.

Both Yulia and Sergei were administered naloxone, which is used to treat an opiate overdose. 

The inquiry heard that Sergei was mistakenly administered atropine, which is used to treat organophosphate poisoning

Andrew O’Connor KC, counsel to the inquiry, said: "Atropine was in fact administered to Sergei Skripal by one of the ambulance staff present by accident, he intended to give the administration of Naloxone but picked up the wrong bottle and in fact gave him atropine.

"We will hear from Mr Faulkner, the expert, that that would have clearly helped Mr Skripal and may have even saved his life.  

“It is also fair to say that Mr Faulkner is not critical that the ambulance staff on that occasion did not diagnose organophosphate poisoning, but instead diagnosed opiate poisoning because it is very rare and there is an overlap of symptoms.” 

Mr O'Connor told the inquiry that a debrief report, written after the March poisoning, addressed the misdiagnosis but pointed out that it did not include any learning points or further guidance to deal with the issue of misdiagnosis. 

He said: “Is it fair to say that more could’ve been done during the period between March and June to draw your staff’s attention, not just refreshing their guidance on organophosphate poisoning, but draw your staff’s attention to this particular learning point from the Skripal poisoning?"

Mr Darch replied: "We shared as much information as we could. There were a number of documents disseminated following the Salisbury incident but of course, we could always do more. If the inquiry considers we should have done more then clearly we will take action to address that.  

“At the time we did the best we could, with what we had available to us."

In June, both Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were treated by paramedics as potential opiate overdose cases, not nerve-agent poisonings, despite the fact Charlie told emergency services at the scene Dawn did not take drugs, Mr O'Connor told the inquiry. 

Mr Darch said: "The incidents of nerve agent poisoning that crews would come across are extremely rare.

“We responded to the symptoms we believed were of an opiate nature, it was some hours later, indeed into the Monday that it was known that it was not an opiate-related incident.”