Pardubice, East Bohemia, Feb 10 (CTK) – Four of the inmates who poisoned themselves with medicines in the Pardubice prison on Tuesday still stay in hospital, but their lives are not threatened, and seven have left it and returned to the prison, Prison Service spokeswoman Robert Blanda told CTK on Wednesday.
The cause and the circumstances of the mass poisoning are being investigated, he said.
“The remaining convicts will be probably released in a few days,” said Dusan Korel, spokesman for the Pardubice Regional Hospitals.
The results of a toxicological examination to reveal the cause of poisoning should be available on Thursday, Korel said, adding that they would be given to the police only.
Eight inmates were hospitalised in the Pardubice hospital and another three, whose health condition was less serious, stayed in the nearby Chrudim hospital.
In the Pardubice hospital, one of the prisoners still stays in the anaesthetic and resuscitation ward and another two in intensive care units.
According to Czech Television (CT), the prisoners had probably intentionally overdosed themselves on a heart arrhythmia medicine.
Health care personnel pumped out their stomachs. Two of the men had to be resuscitated, CT said.
The convicts do not keep medicines in cells, but they get them on prescription from a doctor in charge, Blanda said.
The Pardubice Prison director Tomas Kubin said on Tuesday the hospitalised convicts were guarded in the respective hospitals.
Emergency service spokeswoman Helena Skuligova told CTK that the poisoned prisoners were aged from 17 to 21.
Last night, CT originally reported that one of the inmates had died, but neither Blanda nor Kubin confirmed the information.
More than 700 inmates are serving their sentences in the Pardubice prison now. Some 330 of them are in the under-supervision ward, about 370 in the specially guarded ward and 20 are juvenile.
