NSW: Inquest to be held after post-mortem report bungle

AAP General News (Australia)
12-01-2005
NSW: Inquest to be held after post-mortem report bungle

By Peter Jean, State Political Reporter

SYDNEY, Dec 1 AAP - After a two-year struggle and the trauma of receiving the wrong
autopsy results, Kim McCall has won the battle for an inquest into the death of her brother
Wayne Brown.

Ms McCall initially received the wrong autopsy report after Mr Brown died in the back
of an ambulance at Sydney's Concord Hospital on December 16, 2003.

When she later obtained the real report, she found it incorrectly stated personal details,
including information that he had not been circumcised.

She said she was determined to ensure an inquest be held into how her brother died
- and ensure a similar bungle did not happen again.

Ms McCall now plans a campaign in the lead-up to the March 2007 state election highlighting
what she says are the failures in the state Labor government's handling of the health
system.

"I'll tell people to tell their loved ones they love them every night," she said.

"Because if their loved ones go into this hospital system, there's a good chance they'll die."

Ms Brown said she wants to recruit people to stand outside polling booths on election
day with photos of people who have died in NSW public hospitals.

"If people thought (former One Nation leader) Pauline Hanson was a pain in the arse,
they'll find out she was a pussycat compared to me," she said.

In 2003, Mr Brown, 40, was discharged from Concord Hospital where he was being treated
for a serious renal condition.

Ms McCall said he was sent home because the hospital did not have enough beds - something
the hospital disputes.

The next day he collapsed and was rushed to Blacktown Hospital, which was not equipped
with functioning dialysis equipment.

He died the next morning of a heart attack as he was being taken out of an ambulance
which had transferred him to Concord.

Ms McCall received an autopsy report which said her brother had died of a drug overdose
- she had been given the results for another Wayne Brown.

The real autopsy report seemed to have her brother's height wrong and said he had not
been circumcised.

In a letter to Ms McCall dated August 25, Department of Forensic Medicine general manager
Mark Patterson apologised for errors in the report.

Last month Deputy state Coroner Jacqueline Milledge decided to hold an inquest into
Mr Brown's death sometime next year.

The Health Care Complaints Commission is also investigating the case.

Opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner said Mr Brown's family had been waiting
too long - two years - for investigations into his death to be finalised.

AAP pj/was/cjh/cdh

KEYWORD: HOSPITALS BROWN

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