Two inquiries launched after mum left to die in hospital corridors
TWO major inquiries will be held after The Daily Telegraph exposed “appalling” footage of a mother-of-two dying after she was dumped drugged and naked in a tiny “seclusion room” for hours.
NSW
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TWO major inquiries will be held into the NSW mental health system after The Daily Telegraph exposed “appalling” footage of a mother-of-two dying after she was dumped drugged and naked in a tiny “seclusion room” for hours.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday called the footage “disgusting and deeply distressing”, while Health Minister Brad Hazzard said Miriam Merten’s final moments at Lismore Base Hospital were “beyond disturbing”.
The mother-of-two died from brain injuries after falling and smashing her head “at least” 20 times while in seclusion, and then several times again in the hours after her release while staggering around naked in the hospital’s corridors.
A coroner found two nurses meant to be caring for her during this period showed “complete indifference”.
Mr Hazzard has ordered NSW chief psychiatrist Murray Wright to investigate the use of seclusion rooms across NSW. A parliamentary inquiry is on the cards too, to look at “every aspect” of the mental health system.
The parliamentary inquiry would give mental health patients, welfare agencies and loved ones the chance to give evidence about the system.
Mr Hazzard promised the hearings would be “open and transparent”.
The Health Minister, who was alerted to the shocking death only after a Daily Telegraph investigation, said he was “angry” it wasn’t brought to his attention when he took over the portfolio in January.
Dr Wright said vision of Ms Merten dying as two nurses ignored her cries for help was the most horrifying treatment he had seen of a patient in his 25 years of medicine.
He also said seclusion rooms had been eradicated in other parts of the world.
“The target, ultimately, is to eliminate the use of seclusion,” he said. “We have a very clear policy in relation to seclusion and restraint ... my sad review of this is that they failed (Ms Merten) at almost every level.”
It comes as The Daily Telegraph can today reveal medical records into Ms Merten’s time in seclusion before her death did not even have “mention of a fall”.
This was despite CCTV footage of her five hours in the tiny room clearly showing the falls. Her first fall was recorded just seconds after she was put into the room.
It can also be revealed the dosage of drugs given to Ms Merten before she was put into seclusion “exceeded the maximum permissible dosage for that day”.
And Ms Merten was a “known falls risk”, yet there was not even basic planning put in place during for her time in seclusion.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed Ms Merten’s horrifying ordeal before her death on June 3 in 2014 at the Lismore facility. She had been dumped, naked, in the seclusion room from 11.50pm to 5.10am, was “sedated with psychotropic drugs”, not offered water, was covered in her own faeces and was not spoken to during the ordeal. The room was bare except for a mattress on the floor.
The two nurses who were supposed to care for Ms Merten relied solely “on a video monitor” to observe her condition.
This was strictly against protocols that require basic patient rights like regular pulse checks. She fell again several times after her release, too, but not before CCTV cameras recorded her “wandering the corridor naked and covered in excrement while the senior nurse is seen to mop the floor apparently oblivious”, the coroner said, adding the “horrific” security footage of a mentally ill person “treated in such an appalling manner is really beyond comprehension”. The senior nurse, Christine Borthistle, would later blame “poor staffing levels” for the fatality.
The Daily Telegraph applied for and was granted access to the shocking CCTV footage of Ms Merten’s treatment with the permission of her daughter Corina.
The two nurses were sacked over the incident.
Ms Borthistle, a nurse with decades of experience, recently passed away “unexpectedly” aged 66.
The Daily Telegraph has chosen not to name the junior nurse on shift.
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