The family of a woman, who drowned while taking a bath at the Frankston Hospital in Melbourne, are to make a claim for a fatal accident in hospital following the Coroner´s report into her death.
Amy Hauserman (26) was voluntarily admitted into the Frankston Hospital in March 2008 after doctors feared she was relapsing into schizophrenia and risked the repeat of previous problems she had experienced with anorexia.
Two days later, Amy was found dead – face down in a bath which she had been allowed to take unsupervised – which Coroner Peter White attributed to either falling into an unconscious state while taking the bath or slipping as she tried to get out.
Attributing Amy´s death to “hypoxic brain injury in a setting of immersion”, the Coroner said there was no indication that Amy had tried to take her own life and that, had a nurse been present in the bathroom, there was a high chance that Amy could have been rescued.
The Coroner also mentioned in his report that Amy had been allowed to take a bath without a risk assessment being undertaken and without seeking the advice of her consultant doctor. He said “I find that the absence of supervision was a primary feature leading to her death, in that it caused or contributed to an inability to successfully intervene and to give effect to her rescue.”
After the hearing, Amy Hauserman´s father confirmed that the family would be making a claim for a fatal accident in hospital against the Mornington Peninsula Health Service on the grounds that had the hospital “showed her the due and proper care she deserved, she would still be us now”.
The hospital were not available to comment on the Coroner´s findings, however a court date has already been set in May 2014 to hear the claim for a fatal accident in hospital.