An inquiry heard today that two months before former soldier Lionel Desmond killed three family members and himself, he sought help from a family doctor in eastern Nova Scotia.
Desmond’s medical care is at the centre of the provincial inquiry, which is trying to determine why he fatally shot his wife, daughter and mother inside their home in Upper Big Tracadie, N.S., on Jan. 3, 2017.
READ MORE: Desmond inquiry: therapist adds to long list of challenges that Lionel Desmond faced
The inquiry heard Tuesday from Dr. Ranjini Mahendrarajah, who met with the Afghanistan war veteran at Guysborough Memorial Hospital on Nov. 2, 2016.
Mahendrarajah says Desmond, then 32 years old, complained he wasn’t sleeping properly because of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, which included flashbacks and nightmares.
The doctor says Desmond was pleasant, polite, calm and did not appear to be suffering from acute symptoms, though she says he did complain his medications weren’t working.
She says aside from medication, it appeared the former infantryman was not receiving any other treatment, which is why she says she wrote a letter referring him to the psychiatric clinic at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S.
That letter was addressed to Dr. Ian Slayter, a psychiatrist who has told the inquiry Desmond appeared to be “falling through the cracks” of the province’s health-care system.
Mahendrarajah told the inquiry today it was clear Desmond needed psychotherapy but wasn’t receiving that level of care.
She says her patient did not tell her about the previous treatment he received after he was diagnosed with PTSD while serving in the military in 2011, or after he was medically discharged in 2015.
“He needed further treatment and assessment,” she said, adding that the killings four years ago shook the small communities in Guysborough County.
“I can’t speak for everyone … but this touched everyone in the community is some way,” she testified. “Nobody expected this to happen.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2021.
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