The paramedics who carried Grant McLeod out of the Chilkoot Trail Inn on the morning of Aug. 30, 2008 had seen people in McLeod's condition before – eyes fixed and dilated, lungs silent, skin a mottled grey – but neither had ever successfully revived someone in that state.

By the time they got him into the ambulance, McLeod's heart was no longer doing its job.

"He was in ventricular fibrillation,” one of the paramedics explained to a coroner's jury which is overseeing the inquest into McLeod's death. "It means the heart is quivering; it is not pumping blood properly.”

When the two ambulance attendants arrived at the motel at about 7:30 that morning, McLeod had been without breath or pulse for at least three minutes.

The police officers who had wrestled the 39-year-old man into handcuffs a few minutes earlier noticed his condition as he lay on the second floor of the Chilkoot and moved him down to the foyer before attempting to resuscitate him.

The paramedics arrived before the police officers could begin rescue breathing, the jury heard this week.

The ambulance attendants immediately put a breathing mask on the lifeless man and hooked him up to a heart monitor. It showed a weak pulse, which fluctuated wildly between 60 and 300 beats per minute.

"Three hundred is excessively high,” one of the paramedics explained. "It is typical of pre-death.”

When she checked his eye movement, the prognosis was similarly dim. His eyes were open but they did not respond to light or movement, the pupils were as wide as they could be.

"Either near death and brain damaged, or it could be a response to drugs,” the female paramedic answered when asked what that indicated to her.

"Had you ever resuscitated someone in that condition?” asked Alex Benita, counsel for the RCMP.

"No,” she replied.

The paramedics were told that there had been an altercation between McLeod and police and that he was likely high on drugs.

A look at the track marks on his arms and legs confirmed the drug-use diagnosis for the paramedics and stopped them from trying to put in an IV.

Intravenous drug users typically have scarred and weakened veins, one of the paramedics explained, and they did not feel confident they could insert an IV without the risk of rupture or collapse.

With help from one of the RCMP officers, Const. Ben Douglas, the paramedics moved McLeod into the ambulance and continued giving him CPR.

The male attendant drove while the RCMP officer, who had finished a first aid training course days before, assisted the woman.

Until recently, an RCMP officer was permitted to drive the ambulance in situations such as this one, so that the paramedics could handle the two-person job of breathing and chest compressions.

The female paramedic said she was glad to have Douglas' help and that he was competent, but that it would have been preferable to have another paramedic helping her while the officer drove.

A new territorial policy states that only emergency medical services personnel can drive the ambulances.

The officer and the paramedic gave CPR for the two-minute trip to the hospital. As they drove the final 100 metres, the paramedic used the defibrillator to try to shock McLeod's heart back into action, but with no success.

With Douglas still crouched above him, pumping his chest, they wheeled McLeod into the emergency room, where the ER team took over.

There, they used Narcan to try to counteract the drugs in his system, and Epinephrine, to stimulate his heart. They did CPR for 20 minutes, until 8:05 a.m.

Nothing worked; McLeod was pronounced dead at 8:06 that morning.

The public inquest into McLeod's death wrapped up today. It is now up to the jury to make findings and recommendations on the events surrounding McLeod's death.

Although none of the three legal teams which have been present at the hearing will make final submissions to the jury, they each represent a particular party's interests.

Lee Kirkpatrick represents the coroner and the RCMP sergeant who took over investigation of the incident once McLeod was pronounced dead.

Benita and his co-counsel, Anne Duncan, represent the Mounties as an institution.

Susan Roothman represents McLeod's daughter, Elycia Carlick, who was not present during the inquiry, although her mother Susan attended every day.

Coroner Julius Debuschewitz is presiding.