Raymond Silverfox died of a fast-acting infection most likely caused by inhaling his own vomit and could have been saved had he been seen by a doctor.

That conclusion, made by the pathologist who examined Silverfox's body after he died, came yesterday during the sixth day of the inquest into the death of the 43-year-old Little Salmon-Carmacks First Nation man.

Silverfox died of an infection in his lungs (pneumonia) and blood (sepsis), which he contracted in the last hours of his life, according to Dr. Charles Lee.

The infection worked very quickly, the doctor said, likely starting in his lungs, then spreading to his blood. Once the infection was in his blood stream, the blood became acidic.

"And when the blood becomes too acidic, it's basically incompatible to life,” he explained.

Although Silverfox was not pronounced death until 9:13 the evening of Dec. 2, 2008, after emergency room staff had tried unsuccessfully to resusitate him for over an hour, Lee said "he essentially died in the cell.”

Silverfox had been arrested at the Salvation Army early that morning and was put in the drunk tank just after 6 a.m.

In the time he was there, he threw up 26 times. Guards and RCMP officers who came through the cell block that day talked about the condition of his cell and laughed while saying things such as, "He's rolling around in it,” and "He's covered in shit.”

He was never given clean clothes, nor did anyone suggest moving him to a clean cell. At no time during the day did anyone consider getting him medical attention. Silverfox lay alone and unattended in his cell until 6:46 p.m., when the watch commander saw that he was not moving.

Cpl. Calista McLeod was in charge of the officers on duty that day. It was her responsibility that day to ensure cells were "safe and habitable,” according to RCMP policy.

She did this by checking the cells at the beginning and end of her shift, she said today, and by relying on communication with the officers and guards who work in the cell block.

She told the jury she had been to the cells once in the morning and saw Silverfox in the so-called "drunk tank”.

"It was fine,” she said of the condition of the cell at that time, although the surveillance video of the cell shows Silverfox had already vomited on the floor at least once.

The guards and officers who have testified so far have all said it is common for people who have been arrested for intoxication to vomit, urinate and defecate in the cells – sometimes because they cannot control their bodily functions and sometimes out of spite or anger.

Several have said the condition of Silverfox's cell was not unheard of, but guard Hector MacLellan told another RCMP employee that afternoon it was the worst he'd seen in his five years at the detachment.

McLeod told the jury today she was on her way down to the cells at around 5:40 that evening to check on things before the end of her shift, but was called to a domestic dispute before she could get there.

She returned to the detachment about half an hour later after arresting the man involved and was then tied up for another 20 minutes because the man started wrestling with another officer, she said.

It wasn't until 6:36 that someone looked at the surveillance monitor of Silverfox's cell and noted he was not moving.

"Oh, my God, what is that?” McLeod said when she looked at the monitor and saw the cell floor covered in what looked like vomit and diarrhea.

Silverfox was lying face down in the pool of liquid.

"I was thinking, ‘I'm the watch commander. Why don't I know?'” McLeod said of what was going through her head at that moment. "... I was shocked that I didn't know.”

At the same time, Const. Kendra Hannigan looked through the window of the cell and asked, "Who is that?”

The two female officers were the first ones to express any concern for Silverfox that day.

MacLellan told McLeod that Silverfox had been moving around all day and had just asked for a mat.

In fact, he had requested a mat some three hours earlier, and was told he could "sleep in his own shit” by Const. Geoff Corbett.

The surveillance tape of the cell shows Silverfox never moved after 6:31 p.m.; before that, he could be seen writhing and rolling around on the floor or curled in fetal position.

After McLeod and Hannigan noted he was not moving, it was another five minutes before anyone entered his cell.

"We weren't panicked because of what (MacLellan) told us,” Hannigan said on the stand Thursday. "... We were making preparations to send (Silverfox) on his way.”

"We reacted as soon as we realized something was wrong,” McLeod said today, her voice cracking with tears.

When asked why she didn't check on the cells "intermittently”, as the Whitehorse detachment policy states, she replied: "As a rule, I was down there more often. It was just this particular day.”

Const. Michael Muller was the first officer to go into the cell. By this time, as Lee noted in his testimony, Silverfox was already dead; he had no pulse and was not breathing.

Muller rolled him over on his back so he could start giving CPR.

"Then I pulled Mr. Silverfox out of the cell because the smell was overwhelming,” Muller said. "... (I was) having trouble controlling the gag reflex.”

An ambulance arrived five minutes later. According to paramedic Shane Skarnulis, the ambulance attendants were able to get a pulse at one point, but Silverfox never again took a breath on his own.

At the hospital, the emergency room team worked on Silverfox for more than two hours. They took x-rays of his chest, which showed no signs of pneumonia, according to Dr. Sherillynne Himmelsbach.

"There was no evidence he had vomited,” Himmelbach said, and no feces in his pants.

Both of these observations contradicted what several witnesses have said throughout the inquest.

The blood tests taken showed no drugs in Silverfox's system and a "negligible” amount of alcohol.

As Lee put it, Silverfox was "an otherwise healthy person” when he died.

When asked if Silverfox would have survived if he had been brought to the hospital earlier, she replied: "I would hope so, but I couldn't guarantee that.”

"Yes, he could have pulled through if he had been diagnosed,” Lee said to the same question.

The corner's inquest into Silverfox's death is scheduled to wrap up this afternoon.

The two-woman, four-man jury will then be asked to determine how Silverfox died and will be invited to make recommendations on how such a death may be prevented in the future.

Their recommendations are non-binding and they are not supposed to find fault as in a trial.