State Budget 2017: Grieving families hope coronial funds lead to answers

GRIEVING families desperate for answers about the deaths of their loved ones say Government funding must allow coronial inquests to be held as soon as possible.

GRIEVING families desperate for answers about the deaths of their loved ones say State Government funding must allow coronial inquests to be held as soon as possible.

Pam Gurner-Hall, whose construction worker partner Jorge Castillo-Riffo, was killed in a workplace accident at the new RAH site, said she hoped the $2.9 million of additional resources granted to State Coroner Mark Johns wold allow him to announce an inquest “straight away”.

Ms Gurner-Hall said she was “disgusted” Mr Castillo-Riffo had been “denied justice” since he was fatally crushed while working on a scissor lift at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 2014 and hoped the additional funding would provide long-awaited answers.

She has waged a long-running campaign for an inquest since the State Government dropped charges against Mr Castillo-Riffo’s employer and lead contractor in February.

Pam Gurner-Hall at the new RAH, where her partner was killed in 2014. Photo Calum Robertson

“The sadness of losing Jorge still hasn’t had a voice. He hasn’t had anything that looks remotely like any sense of justice and won’t be until a coronial inquest is held,” Ms Gurner-Hall said.

“An inquest is the basis of where everything else begins. The fundamental thing for me to find out is what happened to Jorge on that day.”

Mr Johns said yesterday it was too early to comment on the $2.9 million resources injection in Thursday’s State Budget, including whether it would allow him to clear a backlog of cases awaiting assessment.

He told The Advertiser last week he had “yet to receive a conclusive response” to queries about “longstanding funding requests involving certain inquests”.

Those pinning their hopes on coronial inquests to solve unanswered questions include many families of residents who died at the now closed Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Service.

Mark Martin says he’s still haunted by the death of his wife, Cheryl Martin, who died days after contracting bronchopneumonia at the home in 2008.

He says he told Oakden staff his wife was sick for days but his pleas were initially met with inaction, before staff informed him a check-up showed she was fine.

Ms Martin was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with bronchopneumonia four days later.

“If they caught it a bit earlier and managed things better, I feel she could still be alive,” he said.

Mr Martin said the horrors at Oakden, detailed in chief psychiatrist Aaron Groves' report, meant inquests into deaths at the facility were vital.

“Just for closure ... with all of the corruption that went on and the cover-ups, it’s really important to find out if people did things that led to their deaths and hold them responsible,” Mr Martin said.

“It (waiting for answers) messes your life up. It’s always on your mind and you just want it to be finished, to get closure.”

Alma Krecu, the daughter of former Oakden patient Ermanno Serpo, said lots of families needed inquests to be held to “close the loop” and ensure mistreatment didn’t lead to the death of their loved ones.

Ms Krecu says Mr Serpo was grabbed by the throat and “dragged” along a corridor at the facility and routinely over-medicated in the three years prior to the 82-year-olds death in 2016.

“We don’t have answers and we think inquests would go a long way towards delivering that,” she said.