High Court judge sent on sick leave after fainting at police event

By Jerry S. George

The keen eyes of veteran physician Dr. Cecil Cyrus and his wife Kathrine detected that something didn’t look quite right with High Court judge Justice Frederick Bruce-Lyle from where they sat at the police passing out parade last Thursday.

“My wife and I thought that he was sleeping for quite a while,” said Cyrus a celebrated retired surgeon.

“… something didn’t look right, until he collapsed,” he told, I-Witness News, adding that his services were quickly requested and his wife rushed over to find that the judge “felt cold and clammy, wasn’t breathing and with no detectable pulse”.

As arrangements were being made to get Bruce-Lyle to the Accident and Emergency Department at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, he opened his eyes, Cyrus said “and although he wasn’t quite recovered, I felt better and no longer feared the worst”.

Cyrus said he felt convinced that the judge was suffering from a case of hypoglycemia –a condition when the sugar in the blood falls too low — but couldn’t be sure.

Recollecting and recounting what happened, Justice Bruce-Lyle told I-Witness News that he had spent that afternoon writing a ruling in a murder case he was presiding over in the assizes, after which he showered and rushed out with his wife to the parade.

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“I felt unbearably hot at one stage and that’s all I remember until we were going down from the Old Montrose station when I came to,” he recounted.

The judge said he asked his driver to take him home, but the driver refused “and I ended up in the hospital.

“The decision was taken by the medical staff to detain me for further tests and observation,” he further said.

The judge added: “I am currently on 15 days sick leave and will proceed on vacation from May 1.”

He added that of late that he has been under a lot of work-related stress.