In the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral, the venue for the Dawn Sturgess inquiry hearings is covered in a purple mark displaying her name in large white letters.

Yet evidence presented in London so far has barely mentioned the Wiltshire mother.

Instead, the focus was on Sergei and Yulia Skripal – the former Russian spy and his daughter and the first victims of the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury four months before Dawn’s death in July 2018.

We heard about the life-saving care they received at Salisbury District Hospital and the moments when doctors realized the scale of the situation. what they were dealing with.

Their experience at Salisbury Hospital also opened a new phase in this investigation. This is the first section to be a “Level 2” hearing, which comes with additional measures in the event of accidental disclosure of classified information.

This means that the investigation’s web feed is muted and not published until it is resolved at the end of each day. Journalists and members of the public at the International Dispute Resolution Center in London can still follow the proceedings on a 10-minute delay in the next room – a transmission which can be cut off if ordered by the president.

Some journalists, including myself, were able to observe the interior of the room itself – they had to leave behind all electronic devices and even watches to ensure that we could not communicate with anyone outside .

A very real – and slightly surreal – example of how this public inquiry manages to balance the need for answers with the need to protect witnesses and national security.

We heard from the first of the witnesses whose identity is withheld: a doctor from the Porton Down Defense Science and Technology Laboratory, referred to by the number FT49.

One of the questions addressed by FT49 was why there had not been multiple casualties, when this chemical weapon is considered one of the most dangerous in the world.

The answer, he said, would lie in dosage – not just quantity, but application. Inhaling it, as Dawn would have done thinking it was a perfume, would have resulted in a much stronger dose than if it had been slowly absorbed through her skin, as may have happened to the others.

He also acknowledged the “extreme mistake in dosing the medication” when a paramedic on scene with the Skripals rushed to clear Sergei’s airway but knocked over the bag of medications. While searching for the overdose drug naloxone, the paramedic mistakenly took atropine – a medication to stabilize the heart rate – which FT49 says has been shown to be “clinically beneficial.”

Earlier this week we heard remarkably detailed information about disabled–doctors on call during a day trip in Salisbury who came to the aid of the Skripals. We heard from the first paramedics and police on scene who kept them alive and set up cordons, fearing it was an overdose of a very powerful drug called fentanyl.

We saw and heard how the anti-terrorist police returned to the Skripals’ tracks this weekend and we heard a little of what Sergei really was as a friend, neighbor and drinking companion during his time in Salisbury.

A key question appears to be whether the treatment, lessons and warning signs of this incident were communicated with sufficient speed and detail.

We can expect to hear their experiences in hospital compared to those of Dawn and her partner Charlie Rowley later in the inquest, which resumes in London on Monday.