Elderly woman Rozalia Setalo ‘bludgeoned fellow resident Dorothy Mavis to death’ at nursing home, coroner’s inquest hears

AN elderly Adelaide woman was fatally bludgeoned in her nursing home bed by another female resident in a late-night rampage involving a chain and a walking frame, an inquest has heard.

A GRANDMOTHER lay seriously injured in her Adelaide nursing home bed for up to three hours after care staff failed to notice she had been brutally attacked by a fellow resident, an inquest has heard.

Dorothy Mavis Baum, 93, was bludgeoned with a plastic-covered chain, complete with metal magnets, at St Basil’s Aegean Village, Christie Downs, in the early hours of 30 May, 2012.

A frail Mrs Baum, who was bed ridden and was receiving palliative care for medical problems including dementia, died in the Flinders Medical Centre the next day from horrific injuries allegedly inflicted by another cognitively impaired resident.

She suffered such deep lacerations to her face, hands, upper body, arms, injuries it exposed her muscle and bones, the Coroners Court heard yesterday.

But she lay in a pool of blood that also splattered around her room, near a nurse’s station, for up to three hours before the alarm was raised amid initial suspicions the injuries were “self-inflicted”.

Coroner Mark Johns heard that checks should occur every hour at the southern suburbs facility.

Dorothy Baum died at a Christies Beach nursing home.

Rozalia Setalo inflicted the injuries with a plastic-covered chain.

While no one witnessed the attack, another resident, Rozalia Setalo, 85, was investigated for her murder as well as the aggravated assaults of two other residents and a carer the night before.

No charges were ever laid against the Hungarian born pensioner after authorities found securing a conviction difficult.

Opening the inquest yesterday, counsel assisting the coroner, Amy Cacas told the court that a day before Mrs Baum’s attack, Alzheimer’s suffering Mrs Setalo had lashed out at three other people.

Shortly after 2am on May 29, Mrs Setalo was found wandering the corridor with another resident, Denise Otis, before she suddenly lashed out with her walking frame before throwing the chain, cups and plates.

She then attacked nursing staff, who were forced to lock themselves in an office, before she was detained by police and taken to hospital.

Her medical records tendered to the inquest, revealed she had the deluded belief that unknown people were “trying to kill her” while she had a “long and significant history of agitation”.

Despite being deemed a “risk” to other St Stylianos wing residents, Mrs Setalo — whose urinary tract infection had a “catastrophic” impact on her agitation and confusion — was returned to the unsecured wing after being discharged from hospital earlier that day. .

The plastic chain that was used as a weapon.

Dorothy Baum’s room, with the plastic chain across the doorway.

The next morning she is thought to have attacked Mrs Baum after her DNA was found on the chain together with her victim, who was not discovered until 5am. A motive is unclear.

The inquest heard the delay in conducting the hearing was because police, and the state’s deputy director of public prosecutions, Ian Press SC, took more than three and a half years to drop the case against Mrs Setalo, who died last July.

Outside court, Mrs Baum’s grandson, Kym Martin, 44, of Christies Beach, paid tribute to his “loving and caring nana”, whose daughter, Julie, 57, died in 2009.

“I hope the inquest prevents something like this from happening again,” he said.

The inquest continues.

Kym Martin grandson of Dorothy at the Coroners Court. Picture Greg Higgs