Sydney mum searches for answers after daughter dies in NDIS-funded care home

Merna Aprem’s mother wants to know why her daughter died alone only one month after moving into a group home.

Tanya Petrus at the graveside of her daughter Merna Aprem who died in care. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Two years after Merna Aprem was found dead in the bath at her NDIS-funded care home, her mother has released documents she believed meant the facility would supervise her daughter in the water.

Ms Aprem had only lived at Afford’s Woodbine residential care facility for a month when she was found dead in May 2019.

Her heartbroken mother, Tanya Petrus, stood vigil at her daughter’s gravesite late last month – exactly two years after the death of her daughter.

“Every night I cannot sleep, I keep asking why I let her go there,” Ms Petrus said.

“I can still feel her in every room with me.”

Merna Aprem, who died at a group home in Sydney’s west. Picture: Supplied

The ground on Ms Aprem’s grave is indented where her mother sits, and even sometimes sleeps, for hours every week.

Medical documents released to The Daily Telegraph have shed new light on the case which is now before the NSW Coroner.

Among them is an Epilepsy Management Plan on Afford letterhead that detailed Ms Aprem‘s epilepsy and the care she needed.

The plan says Ms Aprem‘s seizures lasted for less than two minutes and left the young woman exhausted and needing to sleep.

Ms Aprem‘s speech slurs, she falls, twitches and “sometimes” has seizures while sleeping.

The form lists “risk and safety factors” including dentures, environmental hazards like sharp corners on benches, helmets and requirements for the person while in the community.

One box says “the person requires supervision while bathing or showering” and another says ”the person requires supervision while swimming”.

The word “yes” is hand written next to each under the heading ”risk managed (Yes/No)”.

An epilepsy care plan released by Merna Aprem's mother, Tanya Petrus, that she says was filled out and given to the care home before her daughter's death.

The plan says it was to be filled out by disability workers with input from the family.

Ms Petrus told The Daily Telegraph she signed and helped fill in the form believing Ms Aprem would have been supervised in the bath.

She said that was “100 per cent” her understanding and could not understand how her daughter died in the bath.

Two of Ms Aprem‘s seizures were also recorded on the form – one in December 2018, the other in January 2019.

Ms Aprem‘s epilepsy medication is also mentioned on the form – Tegretol – and the dosage.

The form has been signed and dated in January 2019 and then again in early May.

On May 23 that year Ms Aprem was found dead in the bath, authorities concluded she had drowned.

The invitations to Ms Aprem’s 21st birthday were already in the mail when she died - as with everything else in her life the party was Star Wars themed.

Instead Ms Petrus dressed her daughter in her party dress and stormtroopers formed an honour guard for her casket at Kemps Creek cemetery two weeks later.

“She loved Queen, music from the 1970s, rock and roll and art and drawing,” Ms Petrus said, flicking through photos of Merna’s final year.

“She loved her friends in care, those who were non-verbal she would find a way to help and speak to them.”

She held up a photo of the boy Ms Aprem had formed a crush on and read Mother’s Day cards Ms Aprem coloured weeks before her death.

Tanya Petrus wants to know how her daughter could have been left alone to die. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Ms Petrus had reluctantly put her daughter into the facility, she said, only relenting after 20 years of care because she feared Ms Aprem was going to fall down the stairs, slip in the shower or have an outburst at her siblings.

“All I wanted was for her to live her life,” Ms Petrus said.

Other forms released to The Daily Telegraph appear to show Ms Aprem‘s history of epilepsy was well documented by healthcare professionals.

A Comprehensive Health Assessment Program report notes Ms Aprem had 10 recorded tonic-clonic seizures and five absent seizures and she was treated by a GP and neurologist as late as 2018.

The program is undated but mentions doctors visits in March 2019. It also shows Ms Aprem was in otherwise good health noting only her autism and epilepsy as conditions.

Ms Petrus hired private investigator Tony Jones to help collect documents and information about her daughter’s case.

“Tanya is a single woman with five mouths to feed, no job, and – under extreme duress,” he said.

“She is my hero.”

Ms Petrus’ hopes for answers now lay with the NSW Coroner who is still investigating what happened to her daughter.

Afford refused to comment when contacted citing the ongoing investigation.