An emergency room doctor who saw Lionel Desmond weeks before he killed three family members and himself says the former soldier did not present as potentially suicidal or homicidal.
Dr. Ali Khakpour told a provincial inquiry today he treated Desmond for a lacerated finger at the Guysborough Memorial Hospital on Dec. 13, 2016, and saw him again on Dec. 20, when he refilled a prescription for a sleeping aid.
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Desmond’s medical care is at the centre of the inquiry, which is trying to determine why the Afghanistan war veteran fatally shot his wife, daughter and mother inside their home in Upper Big Tracadie, N.S., on Jan. 3, 2017.
Khakpour, who has experience treating cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among soldiers in his native Iran, says Desmond seemed stable and didn’t appear to be a danger to himself or others.
He told the inquiry he was aware Desmond had an appointment on Dec. 21, 2016, with psychiatrist Dr. Ian Slayter at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S.
Khakpour says he was “shocked” when he learned Desmond had killed himself and his family.