Family of Brendan Luxton demands enquiry after quarantine tragedy report

An army officer has accused Queensland Health of pressuring her to give false evidence to a coroner’s investigation into the hotel quarantine suicide of a childhood friend of Annastacia Palaszczuk.

• Family’s letter: Premier, when will you meet us?
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An army officer has sensationally accused Queensland Health of pressuring her to give false evidence to a coroner’s investigation into a hotel quarantine fiasco which ended in the suicide of a childhood friend of Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Brendan Luxton, 51, suicided on July 17, 2020, the morning after his release from two weeks of mandatory quarantine in Brisbane’s Marriott Hotel – after his family’s pleas for an exemption due to his dire mental health condition were cruelly ignored.

A coroner’s report handed down this week into the death of the retired high-flying banking executive has revealed an Australian army officer – with “no medical training” and brought into assist a struggling quarantine system – claimed she was later urged to pretend she could not remember what happened.

“She felt pressure from Metro North Public Health Unit to respond to the request for information from the Coroners Court with a suggested response of, I do not recall,” coroner Christine Clements said.

Brendan Luxton died after leaving hotel quarantine in July 2020. Picture supplied

The Coroner’s report lays bare a litany of bureaucratic blunders and inept processes by an “under-strain” and “unsophisticated” Queensland Health system before Mr Luxton died – revealing crucial medical alerts were communicated using “sticky notes” placed on the mental health nurse’s desk.

They also include a team leader failing to submit to the Chief Health Officer the Luxton family’s quarantine exemption application – lodged on July 4 and “triaged as Urgent 24 hours” on July 5 – before going on leave on July 8.

Despite Mr Luxton consistently telling quarantine management personnel he was depressed and battling anxiety, the coroner concluded: “Mr Luxton died before there was any mental health assessment, apart from a telehealth appointment with a general practitioner, organised by his family.”

Ms Clements found the “overburdened” system was “relying on some personnel co-opted into the HDES (Health Directions Exemption Service) who had minimal training but were required to make ‘clinical’ decisions and assess risk of those in quarantine”.

“It is notable that the scheduled telephone contact by HDES personnel on days 3 and 12 was not conducted by the trained personnel. Mr Luxton did not pick up his phone on three attempts to reach him, and instead, QLD Police attended physically. There was no information indicating that QPS offices were accompanied by a mental health nurse (as sometimes occurs within the QPS). The information that was relayed back to the HDES was recorded as ‘he’s fine’.

“In subsequent conversation with Brendan Luxton, his sister reported he was terrified by uniformed, armed police attending. He was in a state of anxiety and depression.”

Marita Corbett holds a photo of her and her brothers Derek Luxton (left) and Brendan Luxton (right) who committed suicide after hotel quarantine. Picture: Zak Simmonds

The coroner said another army officer, who made the scheduled day 8 call to Mr Luxton, made a data entry, noting: “Brendan is struggling with quarantine; he has anxiety and depression but he states he has enough meds”.

But in a subsequent statement, the coroner said the officer could not recall the phone conversation or making the entry. She also could not recall if she called the police in relation to Mr Luxton.

It was another army officer – who tried to conduct a telephone check-in with Mr Luxton on his twelfth day in quarantine – who claimed she was pressured.

Mr Luxton’s grieving family has described the coroner’s findings as “terrible”, identifying at least six red flags that were ignored.

His sister Marita Corbett said: “Brendan was failed at every level and we absolutely believe he would be alive today if those red flags had been actioned.”

Mrs Corbett campaigned tirelessly with her younger brother Derek Luxton and husband John Corbett for Mr Luxton’s release from hotel quarantine.

“My jaw dropped when I read that a witness felt pressured to say she didn’t recall things to the coroner; that is wrong,” she said.

“Queensland Health wants to bury the truth. Culturally, the government is a disaster, as the Coaldrake Review (into accountability) has demonstrated – its default position is to hide.”

Since August 2, 2020, Mrs Corbett has requested a personal meeting with the Premier – who was “thick as thieves” with her brother as co-captains of Jamboree Heights State School.

The family has previously claimed Ms Palaszczuk “opportunistically used” Mr Luxton’s death for political gain by mentioning him during a mental health funding announcement on August 20, 2020.

The family is now demanding a full commission of inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic.

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John Corbett, a non-executive company director, said: “What happened to Brendan is an example of a complete and utter balls-up of every level of process of governance.

“There were using untrained staff, who had no idea what they were doing, and sticky notes were never going to cut it.

“We demand a commission of inquiry – how many more of these sorts of things were going on with bad outcomes because of an abomination of process, and how can we build a proper system for next time so this never happens again?”

Mrs Corbett said she was “furious but also heartbroken” to read in the Coroner’s report that Mr Luxton – who had been in constant contact with his worried family since arriving from New Zealand and beginning hotel quarantine on July 2 ­– called triple-0 at 2.45am on July 16, less than five hours before his scheduled release from quarantine.

The coroner’s report states the hotel recorded: “0315am – paramedics have left, have advised guest was having anxiety attacks. Guest will be departing today, no follow up needed.”

The following morning, a disassociated Mr Luxton had breakfast with his mother Liz in the Corbetts’ southside home then, without uttering a word, went downstairs to his room and suicided.

Brendan Luxton (left) with his mother Liz, sister Marita Corbett and brother Derek Luxton 2020.

Mrs Corbett said if the family had been told about Mr Luxton’s emergency call “we would have taken him straight to hospital and not to our home”.

She also noted five other failures by the system to save her brother.

“Our July 4 exemption application, filed after we observed his condition rapidly deteriorating, was ignored.

“In the day 3 call on July 5 Brendan said he had depression then took the phone off the hook.

“Then, after three failed attempts to reach him, they sent in the police, which terrified Brendan. The police concluded Brendan was fine. He wasn’t.

“The day 8 call again showed Brendan was struggling but no referrals were made to a mental health clinician.

“By day 12, Brendan had stopped answering his phone.

“All this time we were FaceTiming Brendan, trying to keep him afloat but he was dying before our eyes,” said Mrs Corbett, the national risk advisory leader for BDO Australia.

In her report, Coroner Clements concluded: “Marita Corbett did everything she could to seek exemption from hotel quarantine, knowing that her brother was significantly unwell.

“His family had persistently attempted to communicate the urgency of the application and Brendan Luxton’s precipitous deterioration of his mental health during the period of quarantine.

Brendan Luxton. Photos: Supplied

“It appears that Brendan Luxton was not a person who would make a fuss and demand a response. He became more and more introspective, withdrawn, fearful and despondent.

“Marita did not ever receive contact from Queensland Health in relation to the exemption application.”

Ms Clements noted “the system had no capacity to detect and prompt an urgent unresolved application” but said Queensland Health improved its system after Mr Luxton’s death.

A statement from Queensland Health yesterday said: “We take very seriously the statement that a seconded army officer felt pressured to give a certain response to the coronial investigation. Metro North Hospital and Health Service will commission an internal investigation to examine the circumstances of this matter, and if there is found to have been inappropriate conduct by a staff member, take appropriate action.”

A spokesman for Ms Palaszczuk said on Friday: “The court has not provided a copy of its report to the Premier and it has not published its report publicly. The Premier has said she is happy to meet with Mr Luxton’s sister once the court has finished its investigation.”