Averly Wakuranhawuy sues NT government over death in care of her child
A Territory mother who lost her 22-year-old child to a chroming incident while a patient at a Darwin Hospital has accused the health department of ‘negligence’.
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A mother who lost her child to chroming while being treated at the Darwin Hospital has sued the health department for negligence.
Averly Wakuranhawuy has taken the Northern Territory Government to the Supreme Court following the death in care of her 22-year-old child on January 31, 2022.
On Tuesday the Gupapuyngu woman’s claim was brought before Justice Craig Smyth, 11 months after Territory coroner released her findings into the preventable death. In April, Elisabeth Armitage found that the NT Health “policies and procedures were inadequate” while caring for the 22-year-old Yolngu sistergirl with a history of volatile substance abuse (VSA).
During the inquest the court referred to Ngalarina with they/them pronouns, despite the 22-year-old identifying as a ‘yappa’, meaning sister, and legally changed their name to Xysz.
Ms Armitage heard that Ngalarina had a happy family life living between Milingimbi and Goulburn Island, but as a teenager mental health and VSA flags started to appear.
The young Territorian’s issues with petrol and aerosol sniffing were well known to Royal Darwin Hospital, with multiple involuntary admissions and medical files flagging there was a “high potential to abuse deodorants”.
Yet two weeks after being involuntarily admitted on January 19, 2022, Ngalarina was found unresponsive in a bathroom on a general ward — next to an empty can of Rexona.
The deodorant can was purchased from the hospital’s own pharmacy.
The 22-year-old’s death was classed by NT Health as a “sentinel event” — where something preventable causes serious harm or the death of a patient.
The inquest heard that due to Covid-19 outbreaks in the mental health wards, Ngalarina was moved to a general ward as an ‘outlier’ patient, with a security guard rostered to monitor them.
The coroner and the NT Health Root cause analysis found there was a lack of clear protocols for non-medical staff to safely manage ‘outliers’ and flag the key risks to their care.
Since the inquest, NT Health has reviewed its outliers policies, expanded training and banned items that could be used for chroming.
However, in court documents obtained by the NT News, Ms Wakuranhawuy said her family were seeking damages suffered due to NT Health’s “negligence” while caring for her child.
“(They) owed the deceased duty of care to exercise all reasonable care, skill and diligence as the provider of medical services in providing advice, diagnosis, treatment and management,” it said.
The case will return to the Supreme Court for a directions hearing on April 30.
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Originally published as Averly Wakuranhawuy sues NT government over death in care of her child
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