Family and friends of a Wiradjuri woman who died six months’ pregnant with a serious but treatable infection told the coroner she hated going to Tumut hospital because “they wouldn’t find out what was wrong with her; she felt was wasn’t getting treated right.”
Naomi Williams’ partner, Michael Lampe; her best friend, Talea Bulger; and her mother, Sharon Williams, all told the Gundagai court on Friday that Williams had the impression nursing staff thought she was a drug addict.
In the seven months before her death, Williams had presented to Tumut hospital 18 times with nausea and vomiting, and sometimes diarrhoea and dehydration. She was often sent home after receiving antiemetic medication and intravenous fluids, and was referred to mental health or drug and alcohol services several times despite those services saying she had no dependence issues. She never received a referral to a specialist.
Bulger told the court that Williams would often delay going to the hospital until she was very sick because she hated going. Bulger said on one visit to the hospital with Williams, she heard a nurse say, “Oh, you’re back again.”
In July, Williams’ mother Sharon wrote to the hospital’s health service manager asking for her daughter to be referred to a specialist to investigate her stomach pain and expressed concern at the repeated referrals to drug and alcohol and mental health services.
Lampe, the father of Williams’ unborn baby boy, gave evidence that was in stark contrast to nurses earlier this week who said that Williams looked well and was “blossoming from pregnancy” in the early hours of 1 January.
Lampe said Williams had vomited, complained of a headache, back pain and spasms from 8.30pm that evening. Lampe said he urged Williams to go to the hospital when her conditioned worsened. Williams sent Talea Bulger a text that said: “You wouldn’t be able to get me to hospital, would you? I can barely move.”
When Bulger couldn’t get there, Williams decided to drive herself.
There were no other patients in the emergency department during the 34 minutes Williams was there. She was attended by two registered nurses, Shirley Adams and Julie-Ann Brewis. While Adams left the emergency department to attend to a palliative care patient on the ward, Brewis – a midwife – had no other patients.
Brewis took initial observations of Williams, which fell on the borderline of a hospital policy guide known as the “yellow zone”. When observations fall into this yellow zone further action is triggered, such as calling a doctor, or further investigation or observation.
Some of Williams’ vital signs were recorded a second time 15 minutes later, during which time her blood pressure had improved and she was allowed to go home. Her temperature wasn’t taken a second time and no physical examination was done.
Brewis told the court that Williams denied having a headache, said she hadn’t vomited for two days and that she wasn’t nauseous, despite arriving at the hospital eating a hydralyte iceblock, which is a treatment for nausea.
Both nurses said Williams asked for two panadol because she didn’t have any at home but Lampe told the court on Friday that he and Williams did have panadol in the house that evening.
In the morning after being discharged from hospital, Williams’ condition deteriorated. She collapsed in the hallway and Lampe said he had to help her go to the toilet and shower.
Williams called Bulger mid-morning to bring her some tea, saying she couldn’t tolerate food and was vomiting up “nothing”. When Bulger arrived at around 11.30am, Williams was hunched over and shuffling.
One to two hours later, Lampe and Williams rang Bulger again and asked her to come back to take Williams to the hospital. Lampe told the court her condition worsened rapidly, and she began to say she couldn’t feel her legs.
When Bulger arrived, Williams could no longer respond to questioning and an ambulance was called. She was given adrenaline by paramedics but went into cardiac arrest and was declared dead at Tumut hospital 15 hours after being discharged.
When the court adjourned on Friday, Williams’ family gave a brief press conference, where Bulger said she felt they were now “on a path to the answers”.
“We’ve got Naomi’s story across and ... it’s being heard and hopefully we’re going to find out what happened to Naomi and her baby, Tristan,” she said.
Lampe said: “I just hope no one has to go through this again. I’ve lost two people.”
The inquest will continue in Sydney before deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame in March next year, to hear expert testimony.
