The Daily Telegraph has published extremely distressing footage of a mental health patient, Miriam Merten, before she died. The patient can be seen staggering through the corridors of Lismore Base, naked, drugged up and pleading for help.
Ms Merten had been admitted to hospital on 26 May 2014 over concerns for her wellbeing and she died on 3 June.
The coroner’s report found she’d died from a “brain injury caused by numerous falls” – in the video she can be seen falling over and hitting her head multiple times but is ignored by nurses.
The mother-of-two had a tragically undignified death.
New Mental Health Minister Tanya Davies said her “stomach turned” when she saw the “horrific” footage which shows Ms Merten in a “seclusion” room covered in her own faeces.
“I got to a point where I just closed my eyes because I didn’t want to see what was going to come next,” Ms Davies said. “I am still pretty much shaken by thinking that was happening to a lady. I was pretty disgusted.”
Labor spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk wants a “full and transparent review” into Ms Merten’s death.
“It is sickening and appalling,” she told The Daily Telegraph. “Premier Gladys Berejiklian must act immediately.”
Tragically, Ms Merten’s daughter said she only found out how her mum died recently when a journalist contacted her.
“At the time they told me she slipped and fell in the shower. I’m so disappointed that it took a reporter for me to know what actually happened to my mum,” she said.
Both nurses in the video were fired. The Daily Telegraph reports the junior nurse was told to ignore guidelines due to “poor staffing levels” during the incident.
