Online Divorce Support for Child Custody

September 13, 7:55 PM

Family Rights ExaminerTeri Stoddard

I began to lose parts of my memory. I was trying to “think” of things and events to keep my brain alive, but each time I thought of something it would disappear with a snap. I was losing memories at an increasing pace. I knew the end was near and I thought of my two children.

Then the memory of my son disappeared and my last thought of my life was of my daughter. I held onto my daughter until the end. My respirations were shallow and my heartbeats had slowed. I slipped into hypothermic coma, a death-like condition that occurs before bodily death.

Left for two days without food, water and bedding, he says there were four changes of the guard who kept him locked in that cold cell, noting, "each made the decision, or was given orders, to not let me out."  On the third day, April 5, at 3:30 am Bardes was saved.  He describes how two unknown sheriff deputies rescued him.

They had badges on. It was dark, but I was brought back from the dead with a faint voice saying over and over again, “What is your name? Who are you?” I could not answer them because I did not know.

One was on top of me with his hand around my neck, as if he were taking a pulse. The other said, “Shit, we have to get him out of here.” Someone had removed my ID armband, why I have no idea. The one guy came back and told me my name was David Bardes; it did not register. I was totally out of it, but still alive, barely.

Bardes was taken to an older area, placed on a floor mat and covered with a blanket.  At 6:00 am he had new guards who didn't know what happened early.  Apparently, Bardes says, he was causing a problem because he didn't know his name or have his ID armband, was in street clothes, and he couldn't stand or move his limbs.

As I was on the ground the guards beat me and kicked me with their boots. They kicked me in the head, arms, torso, and legs. They kept saying “Get up! Stand up,! What is your name?" A large man reached down and grabbed me under the arms and hoisted me into the air and said, “Stand up!”

Eventually the guards realized that something was wrong and got a wheel chair.   Bardes remembers a female guard's voice saying, “I’ll tazer yo ass, and then we see whoz getz in dat chair.”

A large male guard strapped him in and he was taken to the hospital ward.  But things didn't improve.  They put a suicide gown on Bardes and dropped him onto the floor of a suicide watch room.

I was wracked with the pain of warming up quickly. They left me in pain on the floor for another day. As I lay on the floor of the suicide watch room still alive, my body was technically in critical condition. I was suffering from ventricular tachycardia and sky high blood pressure.

Just as many victims die from cold during the warming up phase. The heart can’t take it and many die from heart failure. I was not out of the woods; not by any means. My heart was pounding quick beats in my chest. I could feel my heart stressing.

Bardes was then visted by a male nurse who took his blood pressure and checked his pulse and temperature while Bardes told him what had happened.  He says at that point things became frantic.

He freaked out and said to me, “Stay right there, I will get you the help you need.” He ran down the hallway.

Someone came back with a form for me to sign. I could not see the form without my glasses. I told them to get me to the hospital. I assumed the form was some kind of liability release, but the man would not tell me what it was for. I hesitated and he left.

A few minutes later, another man came and begged for me to sign the form. In hindsight, I should have signed it and let them take me to the hospital, but I was scared, all alone, and in terrible pain. The man said, “You’ll be sorry,” and he left. They dumped me back on the floor of the suicide watch room to wither in my pain and agony.