The family of the man injected with fentanyl in Magaluf is perplexed by the Spanish authorities’ assertion that he was administered the drug due to his alleged violent behavior.
The family of Tobias White-Sansom, a British father-of-two, claims that he tragically passed away after being subjected to physical assault by bouncers and Spanish police. They assert that medics, acting on orders from the police, administered him two injections of an exceptionally potent painkiller. Tobias, aged 35, slipped into a coma and succumbed to his injuries on July 31 of the previous year, five days following the incident that took place on the Magaluf strip in Majorca.
The heartbroken family, who successfully repatriated Tobias’ body to Nottingham last October, has recently uncovered that Tobias was injected with fentanyl, an incredibly potent synthetic opioid that can be up to 50 times stronger than heroin, just before experiencing a cardiac arrest.
According to a medical report obtained by the Mirror, Tobias received two intravenous doses of fentanyl. The first injection occurred while he was lying on the ground outside the nightclub, and the second took place inside an ambulance.
Although the exact dosage administered to Tobias remains undisclosed, even tiny amounts of fentanyl can have severe medical repercussions or result in fatality.
Ricardo White, Tobias’ cousin, expressed concerns regarding the use of fentanyl and shared with The Mirror: “Considering it’s such a dangerous drug, even a slight miscalculation in the dosage can lead to cardiac arrest, and that’s exactly what happened – he went into cardiac arrest.”
Ricardo White further added, “Following his resuscitation, which took them 25 minutes, they placed him in the ambulance and administered a second dose of fentanyl, after which he slipped into a coma.”
According to accounts, Tobias was purportedly handcuffed and partially conscious when he was forcefully removed from the club and restrained by the authorities. Witnesses reported that his head was rolling back, indicating that he had already endured a physical assault from the bouncers and was unable to defend himself.
Tobias’ brother, Maximillian White, alleges that Tobias was shouting about his inability to breathe before the authorities decided to inject him with fentanyl.
Maximillian stated, “It was after that injection that he experienced cardiac arrest. Then, when the ambulance arrived and he seemed stable, they administered another injection, which caused him to go into cardiac arrest again. Is it permissible for the police to act in this manner?”
He continued, “If the police were claiming that Toby was being aggressive, why would they inject him with fentanyl? And if he was unconscious, why administer fentanyl instead of adrenaline or something else? Regardless of how you examine it, their actions do not appear right. They may assert that Toby died days later at the hospital, but Toby died outside that nightclub on those streets alone, after being injected the first time.”
“Because after that—once they managed to revive him after 25 minutes—he was gone. They simply restored his pulse momentarily, and then they placed that pulse in an ambulance, injected him again, and he succumbed once more.”
“He never really had a chance, and it’s incredibly heartbreaking because I’m going through a phase where I can’t even remember what it was like to have him by my side,” Ricardo White emotionally expressed. “His children are growing up, and I’m doing my best to be there for them while also dealing with my own grief.”
Witnesses at the scene reported that bouncers had assaulted Tobias, resulting in blood streaming from his face. They further alleged that the situation escalated when the police arrived, and officers began striking Tobias and others in the vicinity.
In contrast, the Spanish civil guard released a statement claiming that they had responded to reports of an assault on a bouncer. They asserted that the man was “violent” and that the police used force to subdue him in order to provide medical assistance. The statement added, “He was taken to the hospital for treatment. While receiving treatment, he was arrested on charges of causing injury.”
(Note: The information provided is based on the given context and statements from the involved parties. The accuracy and completeness of these accounts should be verified through official investigations and legal proceedings.)
Witnesses even provided accounts that eight police officers knelt on Tobias before he was eventually transported to the hospital, highlighting the severity of the incident.
According to data from Cádiz University’s Pain Observatory, as reported by El Pais, over 7,000 individuals in Spain lost their lives due to opioid overdoses between 2010 and 2017. The number of overdoses witnessed an increase during that period, with more than a thousand cases recorded in the final two years.
Furthermore, Spain has experienced a notable rise in the prescription of rapid-release fentanyl, which doubled between 2010 and 2016.
Consequently, the Spanish health ministry took steps to revise its prescription guidelines, discovering that a significant portion of the treatments did not align with the authorized conditions of use for these drugs. This indicates a concerning deviation from the recommended practices surrounding opioid prescriptions.
