The family of Miriam Merten, a mentally ill mother-of-two who died in Lismore base hospital, have called for an extensive public inquiry into the “disgraceful and horrific” treatment of patients in mental health care facilities in New South Wales.
The family expressed their deep shock and horror at recently released CCTV footage of Merten’s final moments and the neglect of hospital staff.
Merten died on 3 June 2014 after being locked in a seclusion room for more than five hours at the Lismore adult mental health inpatient unit. Footage shows her stumbling in the corridors of the NSW hospital, covered in faeces and falling over more than 25 times in front of nurses.
The coroner ruled that she died of “traumatic and hypoxic brain injury caused by numerous falls” and that senior nurses at the facility had failed to take appropriate action.
On Friday, the NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, said a parliamentary committee and the NSW chief psychiatrist, Dr Murray Wright, would review the state’s mental health care system in light of the incident.
In a statement released through lawyers, the family called for the inquiry to “confront and address” the systemic issues that Merten’s death raised in the treatment of mentally ill patients, saying that her death was “not an isolated incident”.
The statement said the coroner had confirmed that the hospital had “misrepresented the true nature and circumstances of Miriam’s death” and that since shortly after the death they had asked to see the CCTV footage but it had been denied to them.
“The CCTV footage makes clear the utter disregard that nursing staff showed towards Miriam while she was clearly in a hypoxic state and her brain was starting to shut down”, they said.
“The footage is confronting and forces us, as a society, to question how anyone could be treated in this way whilst in the care of an institution whose sole purpose ought to be to provide care and support for the most vulnerable members of our society.
“The lessons and questions that arise as a result of this footage are not lessons and questions for our family alone ... There may be many other families with equally vulnerable relatives who have been treated with a similar lack of care and respect.
“We wish to publicly support all inquiries into this matter and will be seeking further answers and explanation as to how this could have occurred.”
The coroner also found in September 2016 that representatives of the hospital had misrepresented the cause of Merten’s death to the family, claiming she had slipped and fallen in the shower.
“The family feel that, on every level, the adult mental health care unit at Lismore base hospital failed Miriam and, as a result, she was left to die in the most disgraceful and horrific way”, they said.
Last week Hazzard said the review was necessary to “know on behalf of the people of NSW that the health officials are doing everything they can to improve this system”, while opposition mental health spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk called the incident a “Don Dale moment”.
The review is expected to take six months.
