Perth woman jailed for unpaid fines died after epileptic seizure in cell

An inquest into the death of a Perth woman while she was jailed over unpaid fines will examine whether a delay in accessing a functioning oxygen tank contributed to her death.

Cally Graham.

An inquest into the death of a Perth woman while she was jailed over unpaid fines will examine whether a delay in accessing a functioning oxygen tank contributed to her death.

Cally Graham died shortly after she was remanded into the Melaleuca remand and reintegration facility in February 2017, with an inquest on Monday hearing there was a delay of almost five minutes from prison officers and a nurse in entering her cell after her cell mate made an urgent call for help.

Graham, 31 at the time, was withdrawing from heroin when she was pulled over by police in February 2017. They discovered there were outstanding warrants for her over unpaid fines and she was jailed as a result.

Western Australia’s laws allowing outstanding fines to be paid off in exchange for prison time were formally abolished just months after Graham’s death. The law had been the subject of intense scrutiny following the death of Indigenous woman Miss Dhu while she was imprisoned over unpaid fines back in 2014.

Graham was suffering from epilepsy at the time of her incarceration, but information about her condition was not passed on from police and prison officers to medical staff. The inquest heard the woman did not receive her epilepsy medication after being admitted to Meleleuca on February 20, 2017, and she began suffering a fit that evening.

Her cell mate, Katie-Ann Maree Wallis, made a cell call just after 10.50pm in which she told a prison officer Graham was suffering a seizure.

Ms Wallis, who had trained as a nurse, began carrying out CPR on Graham.

The prison officer called a “code amber” medical emergency over the prison radio, which he upgraded to “code red” after making observations from the cell door.

The nurse on duty that evening, along with two other prison officers, arrived at 10.55pm and the cell door was opened almost five minutes after the initial call.

Counsel assisting the inquest, Cheyne Beetham, said an attempt was made to deliver oxygen to Graham but the oxygen machine was either not brought to the cell or the oxygen tank was found to be empty. He said the coroner should consider whether Graham lost an opportunity to survive because of the time taken by prison officers and the nurse to reach her, and whether the absence of a functioning oxygen machine reduced her prospects of survival.