An inquest into the deaths of two women at Queensland Police watch houses has heard a custody officer raised concerns that he could not see into certain cells to perform safety observations.
The Coroners Court has begun a two-week hearing into the deaths of Shiralee Deanne Tilberoo and Vlasta Wylucki.
Ms Tiberoo died on September 10, 2020, at Brisbane City Watch House, while Ms Wylucki died on February 28, 2018, at Southport Watch House, north of the Gold Coast.
The first day of evidence focused on Ms Wylucki, who migrated from Croatia at an early age and became a registered nurse in Queensland before leaving the profession due to medical issues.
Ms Wylucki's daughter Laura read a family statement to the inquest, saying many people thanked her mother for her "kind heart and hand" in helping their loved ones during end-of-life care.
"Sadly, things got a bit much for mum so her outlet was alcohol to numb the pain from her marriage breakdown and chronic health issues. I really want to stress how much of a kind, funny and caring woman my mother was," she told the inquest on Monday.
Senior Watch House Officer Daniel Marshall testified that he had booked Ms Wylucki into custody when she was arrested for an alleged domestic violence breach.
Officer Marshall said Ms Wylucki "was not intoxicated and was compliant" while being processed and the shift supervisor, Sergeant Lyle Wiss, assigned her cell 19, which was generally reserved for female prisoners.
The inquest was previously shown security camera footage of Ms Wylucki sleeping on the floor of the cell behind a privacy partition for the toilet, which stood between the two prisoners and the cell door.
Officer Marshall said he ordered "general observation" checks on Ms Wylucki every 60 minutes due to her condition when arrested and her self-answers to questions.
Counsel Assisting Sarah Lane asked him how easy it was to see if someone was breathing if they were lying behind the privacy screen in cell 19.
"You can't," Officer Marshall replied.
He agreed this was a concern and he "brought it up many times" but cell 19 and another similar cell were only changed after Ms Wylucki's death to a maximum of one prisoner.
Sgt Wiss told the inquest he would have contacted a forensic medical officer for advice if Ms Wylucki requested overnight access to any of the five medications she brought with her to the Watch House, but no request was made.
Cairns Hospital director of cardiology Greg Starmer testified to the results of his review of Ms Wylucki's medical history and autopsy report.
Dr Stramer said Ms Wylucki has received "good medical therapy" after a heart attack in 2015.
"Missing her medications for one night would not have had a great impact overall," he said.
Dr Starmer said he agreed with the autopsy that found Ms Wylucki's cause of death was arrhythmia - a fatally irregular heartbeat.
"It typically causes sudden cardiac death. You could be standing at the bus stop and drop. It's a side-effect of having a heart attack," he said.
Dr Starmer said Ms Wylucki would have shown few symptoms before the arrhythmia and no treatment other than immediate resuscitation would have had a chance at changing the outcome.
