THE mental-health team that assessed a 25-year-old in the days before he took his own life have been confronted by the man’s parents at his inquest, which started yesterday.
Daniel Cram, who was a popular figure in the Island’s surfing and skateboarding community, took his own life at his home in December 2024.
During the first day of a two-day inquest, Mr Cram was described as an introvert with “lots of friends” through his hobbies, school and work. He enjoyed surfing, snowboarding and skiing, and had lived in Scotland and Canada.
He worked as a plumber, the inquest heard, and had been working long hours and received texts from customers at all hours, which had caused strain on his mental health. This was exasperated by an ear infection which prevented him from surfing and seeing friends, the inquest was told.
In a statement read out during the inquest, his mother, Louise Cram, said that she had “put my trust” in medical professionals on several occasions and “they failed him”.
She said: “We are all left in disbelief to how this could have happened to someone who tried so hard to get medical help and was let down”, adding that the failings within the mental-health services had caused the “unnecessary death of a beautiful young man”.
She described taking him to see a locum GP – Dr Andrew Summers – who, she said, had failed to properly address her son’s concerns. She requested a second appointment in late November, which lasted around 90 minutes, during which GP Dr Sean Ryan became very concerned about Mr Cram’s mental health and called the crisis and assessment line.
The 25-year-old was assessed by the crisis line as “routine” – the lowest level of concern – and scheduled for an assessment four days later, the inquest heard. He did not attend that appointment and was found dead on 2 December.
Rebecca Brawley, who at the time was crisis-team manager, said in her evidence that she would have classed Mr Cram as an urgent appointment – meaning he would be seen within 48 hours.
Mental-health practitioner Ezekiel Munemo – who had assessed Mr Cram during his GP appointment – said it had been “quite difficult” to assess the skater “given that I was speaking to Daniel by phone”.
In a tense exchange with Mr Munemo, Ms Cram asked why he had not assessed her son as in need of urgent care, despite his doctor stating he was extremely concerned about him.
She said: “You’ve got a GP telling you that it’s quite urgent, on [which] authority are you able to downgrade that to routine?
“I cannot understand what the thought process was.
“It seems bonkers to me that you can override [his GP] based on a conversation that is very limited, by your own admission.”
However, Dr Summers, the locum GP who first saw Daniel, appeared in front of the inquest this morning and denied having any knowledge of the young man’s mental health concerns.
“If I had in all honesty been made aware that the problem was a serious mental health issue, it would have completely constructed and determined the pathway of that consultation in and entirely different way… So, had I known, I may have acted differently,” he said.
The doctor said 75% of the appointment was spent discussing Daniel’s ear, which he said was not bad enough to sign him off work.
But his mother disagreed with Dr Summers, telling him that she recalled spending hours before the appointment trying to get her son “out of bed, washed, dressed”.
“He could hardly walk, he could hardly talk. What you describe is not the appointment that he entered. His demeanour was so obviously not in good shape,” she explained.
While she agreed with the doctor that his ear was a “massive problem”, she said her son “was in a really bad way” and claimed that he had spoken about his family mental-health history, as well as symptoms like sleeping problems and panic attacks.
The GP stated he “categorically” did not mention these.
The inquest continues this afternoon. Deputy Viscount Matthew Berry is presiding.
