A quick-thinking doctor has described how she desperately tried to help an alleged murder victim who was “gurgling” blood as he lay on a busy Dundee road.
Dr Jennifer Rollo was on holiday with her family when she got out of her car on Coupar Angus Road to assist taxi driver Mark Ward, 54.
Jurors heard how Mr Ward was found bleeding from the nose, mouth and the back of his head after falling down an embankment across from Farmfoods in Lochee.
It was claimed that Mr Ward was involved in a struggle with another man who “casually” walked away from the scene.
Steven Greig, 47, is on trial at the High Court in Dundee and denies murdering Mr Ward on April 6 2022.
Significant bleeding
A joint minute of agreed evidence, read to the jury by advocate depute Mark Mohammed KC, revealed that Mr Ward died on April 5 2023 at Ninewells Hospital after previously requiring 24-hour care due to injuries he sustained.
In her evidence, Dr Rollo, a specialist trainee registrar in diabetes based in Glasgow, was a passenger in the car with her husband when she noticed Mr Ward lying on the road.
She told the court: “The man on the ground was flat on his back and having a seizure.
“His head was extended, his lower limbs were clenched and he was shaking back and forth. I think he was unconscious.
“There was a significant amount of blood on the ground. There was significant bleeding from the left side of his head.
“The left side of his face was very bruised, very swollen, quite disfigured. I couldn’t actually open his eye due to the severity of the swelling.”
Ms Rollo said she performed a “jaw thrust” in order to open Mr Ward’s airwaves after noting he was making “grunting and gurgling” noises.
999 call
Jurors were played a 999 call made by ground worker Matthew Coughlin who had been driving down Coupar Angus Road from Harefield Road.
The 50-year-old said he could see two men “wrestling” and “throwing punches” as he came down the hill before finding Mr Ward lying on the ground surrounded by blood.
In the frantic call, Mr Coughlin, who used a foreign male’s phone to make the call, said: “You better hurry up, I think this boy is awa to go.
“I dinna think this laddie is going to last it. Come on mate. You’ve got to try and stay awake, pal.”
Mr Coughlin said in evidence: “They were pulling and punching each other. It was only a matter of seconds.
“I seen a boy walking across the road and a boy on the deck. He was in a bad way.
“The other was walking across the road towards the multis, casually as anything.”
“I jumped out. I pulled over to the left. He was gurgling blood.”
Man was ‘very white’
Andrew Sutherland, 56, described how he pulled his HGV over to try and assist after seeing one man “tumbling downhill” before witnessing another walk away.
He said of the man on the road: “He was very white. He was gasping and gurgling. There was a lot of blood from his mouth and nose.
“It didn’t look like there was any possibility of CPR, not within my abilities, and he was shaking.”
Greig denies murdering Mr Ward by struggling and pushing him, causing him to fall down a grassy slope, landing on the road and striking his head before kicking or stamping on his head.
The trial before judge Lady Drummond continues.
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