His family were not satisfied with this. "As far as I'm concerned, if the police didn't treat my lad the way they did, he would be here today," Michael's father said. "He did nothing wrong, he hadn't committed any crime, he rang the police for help."

Excited delirium is a disputed medical condition that describes a state that can include being aggressive, being unaffected by pain, and exhibiting extraordinary strength.

Information obtained by BuzzFeed News from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) shows that since 2004 in England and Wales there have been 13 people who have died in police custody with excited delirium cited as their cause of death.



In a report published by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in May of this year, excited delirium is described as a “medical emergency”. At any time, those with the condition could collapse or have a heart attack with little or no warning, it warns.



The physical symptoms of excited delirium are numerous and varied. They include psychosis, extreme aggression or violence, excessive strength, insensitivity to pain, and the ability to engage in constant physical activity without becoming tired. The person might experience a dramatic increase in their body temperature, which leads to profuse sweating and the inappropriate removal of clothing. Their heart rate and breathing might be abnormally fast.



The condition is thought to be triggered by drug abuse and, in a smaller number of cases, pre-existing serious mental illness. Cases most commonly involve men, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.

There are well-documented cases of people presenting excited delirium symptoms who have survived when they are immediately treated by medical professionals. But the use of the term is becoming a key factor in the growing concern over how and why people die when they are being restrained by police.



Cases in police custody seem to follow a very similar pattern of events, which often leads to the same tragic result – a death and a family fighting for answers and sometimes accusing authorities of "whitewashing" what happened.

But medical professionals can't agree on how the term should be used, and there’s no agreed way of diagnosing the condition.



In the majority of high-profile excited delirium cases, post-mortem examinations show that victims were generally found to have taken large amounts of cocaine or amphetamines.

The drugs lead to the classic symptoms – a substantial spike in the person’s heart rate, breathing, and body temperature. The condition's also linked to psychosis: The person becomes detached from reality, seeing and hearing things that are not there, and believing they are in danger. It’s likely that they will behave in a bizarre manner – running into traffic, jumping over fences, or trying to get into other people’s houses, for instance.