Inquiry probes death of Alice Springs psychiatric patient who was repeatedly sedated

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A warning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that the name of a deceased person is mentioned in this report. An inquest has opened into the death of an Aboriginal woman who died after being sedated four times during a psychotic episode in 2023. A coronial inquest in Alice Springs has heard evidence from doctors and nurses who have spoken of poor coordination and chaotic clinical decision-making stemming from stretched resources.

Transcript

00:00The coroner has gone out of her way to say this is an inquest that is made for the family.

00:08She said in her opening remarks that the most important people in this trial, in this coronial

00:15inquest, is the family, the people who love Kumanjaya.

00:19And we've heard her husband, Kumanjaya's husband, Terence Brogis, talk about how difficult

00:26it was for him to look after her and also thereby reflecting the very, very few resources

00:36that are for people out in the bush.

00:40And as a result of all of this, the result of the fact that he had to effectively look

00:44after Kumanjaya meant that on occasion she wasn't able to get the medicine that could

00:49have kept her psychosis at bay.

00:52She, in fact, missed six months of her medication.

00:58So again, this is an indictment on the system and really shows that specific care should

01:06be taken to look after people, the most vulnerable people in the most remote communities.

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