When, 13 years ago, the phone rang at 7am at John Niven’s house, he knew it wasn’t good news. “It’s about your brother,” his then partner Helen told him, handing over the receiver. Niven found himself inwardly repeating a question uttered countless times by him and his parents: “Oh, Gary – what have you done now?”
Gary, who was 42, was in the intensive care unit of his local hospital in Irvine, Ayrshire. He had rung the emergency services in the early hours saying he was depressed and had been trying to kill himself. An ambulance crew arrived 14 minutes later and took him to hospital where he was triaged as non-urgent and put in a room by himself. While waiting for a doctor to arrive, Gary again attempted suicide. After being found unconscious, he was put in a medical coma from which he never woke up.
