An inquest into the death of a 20-year-old Gloriavale man is underway in Greymouth. Sincere Standtrue died in Christchurch Hospital in November 2018, the eldest in his family of 11 siblings. Photo: Supplied / Gloriavale
An inquest has heard of desperate efforts to save a young Gloriavale man who was found unresponsive in the Christian community's paint shop in 2018.
Sincere Standtrue died at Christchurch Hospital 10 days later.
An inquest is being held in Greymouth to determine the cause and circumstances of the 20-year-old's death, including whether it may have been self-inflicted.
On Wednesday, Thankful Standfast told the coroners court that another member ran out of the paint shop screaming after discovering Standtrue on 23 October 2018.
Standfast said he carried Standtrue out and laid him on the grass so he could give him CPR, which he kept up for about 15 minutes.
"It could've been more, I just kept going, kept going, kept going," Standfast said.
During this time Diligent Stedfast started doing chest compressions, he said.
Stedfast, who previously gave evidence at the inquest, said they never put a defibrillator on Standtrue because when they went to use it the battery was flat.
Standfast said Standtrue eventually started to breathe, so he thought he had been saved before a helicopter came to pick him up.
He was admitted to Te Nikau Grey Hospital's Emergency Department that night, then transferred to Christchurch Hospital's intensive care unit the following morning.
A little over a week later, Standtrue was removed from a ventilator and he died on 2 November 2018.
Standfast said it was a very traumatic event.
"I was pretty shaken up. For a while after I was worried about him, because at that point we thought that we had saved him, he had been taken to hospital and I was hoping that he was going to recover."
On Wednesday, the court also heard from former Gloriavale member Benjamin Boaz, who left the community in 2023.
He said he worked in the paint shop for about five months in 2010, a couple of years before Standtrue started working there.
Boaz said when he was a painter wearing personal protective gear was not enforced.
"Often when cleaning the brushes we would not be wearing masks and would be in poorly ventilated spaces and I would end up getting a headache and feeling sick."
"PPE was available to use however the culture was not present to use it. I would describe it as very lax. No one made you use it and there was no push to wear your mask. The masks were half masks which covered your nose and mouth and had filters. I'm aware now that they use full face masks."
"I do have recollections of seeing Sincere when he was working there, and I did note on a number of occasions seeing him with paint all over his hands, face and sometimes legs, and remember thinking to myself 'that can not be good for you'."
The inquest continues.