Heartbreak as 'genius with enormous potential' who had 'obsession' with saving the planet takes his own life

Ramy Michael Baxby, who went by Michael, was a keen rower and Cambridge University alumnus who was “destined for success”, his parents say.

A concerned friend visited his flat in Oughtibridge on November 19, 2023, to find the door unlocked, and discovered the body of the 38-year-old.

Michael was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (now known as autism, or Autism Spectrum Disorder) at the age of 24, which his parents Tanya and Carl Baxby believed masked other complex mental health issues.

He paused his studies at Cambridge and returned to his parents’ home in Sheffield in 2009 due to these difficulties.

He was also diagnosed with dependent personality disorder and mixed anxiety/depressive disorder, but disagreed with the former.

Michael was treated with talking therapies, family therapy, medication, and had support from a home care service, but his parents had questions about why he was not detained, or sectioned.

Doctors and mental health professionals said he was not suitable to be detained under the Mental Health Act.

Dr Helen Crimlisk, consultant psychiatrist at Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust, said when she met Michael on November 10, 2023, there was no “real or immediate” risk to him and so they could not detain him without his consent.

She did not find any evidence of a “severe” mental illness such as bipolar or psychosis, only low mood.

She said: “There are very strict rules about the Mental Health Act and how it is used. The context of my involvement with Michael was not in a crisis ... but did have the background of an ongoing risk.”

The inquest heard that Michael declined an offer of housing from Crisis House and his parents bought him a flat, as supported accommodation had not helped him previously, but he was not happy with this living situation.

Tanya said: “[From 2018], he dedicated his entire existence for the rest of his life to returning to our home and living with us.

“Any attempt to reason with him ended in the most awful rows.”

She said he lived a “nocturnal life”, sleeping on the floor of their spare room rather than his own bedroom, became obese, and would not shower for months due to his “obsession” with saving the planet and not wanting to waste water or heating.

Michael asked her to accompany him to Dignitas and wanted to have frequent “in depth discussions” about how to end his life.

Tanya and Carl would find him asleep in the garden, on the patio, or in his car outside the house, rather than being in his own flat.

The inquest heard he became “increasingly disillusioned” with mental health services provided by the council or NHS.

Referring to a visit to A&E in August 2023, mental health nurse Joanne Bond said: “He made a point to suggest that everything the team was suggesting was ‘moronic’.”

“[In a later visit in October], he was assured he could use crisis services when he needed to, but he said it would not be helpful, and left making threats to end his life.”

Coroner Katy Dickinson concluded that Michael suffered with mental illness for many years which led to him taking his own life, and did not find there to have been any “inappropriate decisions from interested persons”.

She said to Tanya and Carl: “I realise that may be a little disappointing for yourself, I understand that. I am very sorry it has happened, and it is very clear how much you cared about him.”

His parents described him in childhood as “adorable, happy, cheeky, too clever for his own good, witty, irritating, very special little boy” who was “loved by everybody”.

In a tribute read to the court, Tanya wrote: “Michael's life-long passion, his calling, his destiny, was aircraft design. He was a born aeronautical engineer.

“If we were just to start him on “an aircraft conversion,” he would talk and he would walk, and walk, and talk, right to the top of any mountain, without even noticing the climb, busy describing aircraft design concepts well beyond his age of six or seven at the time, and frequently beyond us, both chartered engineers, too.

“By the age of 10 he had, what can only be described as, encyclopaedic knowledge of most military aircraft in the world.

“He was once gutted about getting an A but ‘only’ 81 per cent in one of his many A-Level modules - it had to be 99 per cent or 100 per cent, he wasn't interested in just doing ‘enough’.

“Instead, he drained and burned himself out, seeking perfection. His mental and physical health deteriorated, and eventually he crashed out of Cambridge and now out of life.

“We firmly believe that Michael was a genius, he had enormous potential which if realised could have made the world a better place.”

The inquest concluded today (September 26) at Sheffield Medico-Legal Centre.

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