u/Optimal-Leather341

Suppose someone say's they've been stabbed and you don't notice for 8 minutes... Nearly 500 seconds of not knowing why your man isn't breathing, despite your "mate" saying he'd been stabbed.

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Police officers took eight minutes to discover the stab wound that killed Henry Nowak, a transcript of the incident has revealed.

>The new evidence – released by the BBC with no objections from Mr Nowak’s family – reveals the panic of the officers as they realise he has stopped breathing and then start trying to save his life.

>The male police officer in the newly released excerpts was the same officer who was filmed saying: “Don’t think you have, mate,” before restraining him.

>Transcript timings indicate it took police officers eight minutes to discover the fatal stab wound in Mr Nowak’s chest after arriving on the scene.

>They show that three minutes after the officers arrived, Mr Nowak was lying on a gravel drive with his hands cuffed behind him. The officers radioed for an ambulance and were growing increasingly anxious.

>‘He’s not breathing’

>The transcript reads as follows:

>Male police officer: “I’m not sure he’s breathing.”

>Female officer checks for a pulse in his neck.

>Male officer: “He’s not breathing.”

>Female officer: “Right, let’s get the handcuffs off.”

>Male officer: “Let me know he’s not breathing.”

>Female officer: “Yeah. [Speaking into her radio] From 4-8 we don’t think he’s breathing. Could we get another unit here please? Got no pulse.”

>Male officer: [unlocks handcuffs]. “Medic or anything. ARV.”

>Female officer: [Talks on police radio]. ARV towards [us] if we’ve got them with a defib.

>Male officer: [Removes handcuffs].

>The officers called for a medic or an armed response vehicle (ARV), as many carry defibrillators and firearms officers undergo enhanced first-aid and trauma training.

>The attending officers move Mr Nowak, accidentally hitting his head on a wall as he is lifted, before a female officer begins CPR.

>The male officer asks bystanders to move back, and he then takes over chest compressions. When a nearby colleague requests an ambulance, explaining that Mr Nowak is unconscious, the male officer says the situation is much more serious.

>Male officer: “He’s not unconscious, mate. He’s not breathing. [Continues chest compressions]. Come on, mate. That’s it, that’s it. Keep breathing. Come on. [Pauses briefly]. No.”

>Female officer: “No? Keep going.”

>Male officer: “Come on, mate. Stay with us.”

>Chest compressions are briefly paused, and when Mr Nowak is described as appearing “lifeless”, resuscitation efforts are resumed.

>Medics on the phone are giving officers CPR advice, telling them to “push, push, push” and the male officer tires, so his female colleague takes over CPR. The phone instructions come through telling the officers to “push hard and fast and two times a second”.

>An ambulance arrives and medics take over, at which point the extent of Mr Nowak’s injuries becomes apparent. The officers pause CPR as the rest of Mr Nowak’s clothing is cut away from his chest to reveal the wound.

>Male officer: “Has he been stabbed there?”

>Female officer: “Yeah, he’s got a stab... there’s a mark there.”

>Male officer: “That makes it worse. He’s got a stab... I’m pushing on a [swears] stab wound. [Sound of clothing being ripped].”

>Female officer: “That’s OK. It’s fine. It’s not... it’s not coming out. It’s fine. Keep going. Keep going. It’s not bleeding out.”

>Male officer: [Continues chest compressions].

>At this point, around nine minutes after police first reached the scene, a paramedic arrives. The transcript ends at approximately 11.46pm on Dec 3 last year as the ambulance staff take over.

>Police being investigated

>The actions of the officer and response of Hampshire constabulary are being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct and HM Police Inspectorate, who were called in by Donna Jones, Hampshire’s police commissioner.

>At Digwa’s sentencing, Judge William Mousley KC said: “The genuine shock to the particular police officer, when he realised that he had been giving CPR to Henry when he had a serious chest wound tends to show that he was doing his best in a very difficult situation.”

>He also acknowledged that the attending police officers had been given a “convincing but wholly false narrative” of the incident and added that “sometimes, someone arrested and handcuffed will feign injury” in the hope of being released.