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NT coroner finds language barrier contributed to death


PM - Monday, 1 September , 2008  17:21:00

Reporter: Zoie Jones

MARK COLVIN: The Northern Territory coroner today found that a trail of miscommunication led to the death of an elderly Aboriginal man who was left alone at a remote airstrip two years ago.

Frail, partly deaf and without water, the man had just returned home after hospital treatment in a town 300km away. His body was found a week after he was dropped off, in scrub near the airstrip.

The coroner has recommended a series of changes to the Territory health system, including more Aboriginal interpreters, to stop similar deaths.

In Darwin, Zoie Jones reports.

ZOIE JONES: During the coronial hearing, the frail man who died alone under a tree at the Kalkaringi airstrip was simply known as the "Old Man", to avoid using his name after his death.

Two years ago, he was flown home to the remote community in the Territory's north-west after being treated for pneumonia at the Katherine Hospital.

No one was at the airstrip to meet him, and the pilot left him in a hot tin shed with no water. He died several days later from a combination of the pneumonia, dehydration and exposure to heat.

It took several more days to find his body. In a confused state, he had wandered away from the airstrip in the wrong direction home.

He was a respected senior man who spoke three languages, but none of them was English.

His niece is Josie Crawshaw-Guy.

JOSIE CRAWSHAW-GUY: Everywhere along the line they failed him. It's just, what we call institutional racism.

ZOIE JONES: Well the coroner, at one point she did mentioned that a white man was dropped off at the Kalkaringi airport in the same sort of situation, no one was there to meet him. And the pilot in that situation leant the mobile phone and waited until someone came to collect that man. Is that the sort of example that you mean in terms of racism?

JOSIE CRAWSHAW-GUY: Yes, that's the behaviour and the practice of people that converse with someone in their language. That man would have had the ability to actually say, "Look, mate, could I use your mobile?"

ZOIE JONES: The pilot now lives in Hong Kong. The coroner found that his actions, in leaving the Old Man alone, "lacked the most basic element of human compassion" and that a quick phone call could have prevented the death.

Instead it took him six minutes to land, unload the Old Man, and take off again.

JOSIE CRAWSHAW-GUY: Six minutes on the ground, that's pathetic.

ZOIE JONES: Since the Old Man's death, the health department has changed the way it transfers remote patients.

Now, a fax is sent to the remote clinic notifying them that a patient is going to be sent home, and the clinic has to send a reply back before the patient can travel. The charter plane companies have now also agreed not to leave a patient alone, and will instead fly them back to the base hospital.

Shane Houston is a senior manager with the Northern Territory's Department of Health and Community Services.

SHANE HOUSTON: I don't think that our staff are racist. I think our staff are incredibly dedicated and they've all been shocked and upset by this unfortunate death.

Our staff aren't racist but can we find ways where the cultural needs of different races are better taken account of by the health system, I think the answer is absolutely yes. If you asked me bluntly, is the department is perfect, I'd say, we're all human.

ZOIE JONES: The Katherine West Health Board runs nine remote community clinics, including the one at Kalkaringi.

They've been criticised by the coroner for the "haphazard" way they dealt with incoming faxes. No one at the clinic saw the fax from the hospital saying the Old Man was coming home, but there was evidence during the hearing that a fax was sent and the clinic's machine received the fax.

The board's chief executive Sean Heffernan says the death of the Old Man has led to a lot of fear among the community's older residents.

SEAN HEFFERNAN: Fear about travelling, fear about accessing medical services because travelling to town is a scarier business now.

ZOIE JONES: Are you confident that this sort of death won't be repeated in the region?

SEAN HEFFERNAN: Look, we'd be fearful about something like this happening again. We're working very hard to make sure that doesn't happen. We made a promise to our community mob that we would be better advocates in this system. So they won't get lost.

We're just trying to make our, helping to support our mob to be visible in the system and we'll keep advocating for that.

ZOIE JONES: Another key recommendation from the coroner was to increase the number of Aboriginal interpreters in the health system.

But the dead man's niece, Josie Crawshaw-Guy, says the coroner should take her own advice.

JOSIE CRAWSHAW-GUY: The coroner would only agree for the first day that that's all she thought that they needed to have an interpreter for and when they did get one, it was in Creole and all of our people speak Gurindji. So it's interesting that she does call for that, but she didn't think it was necessary herself.

MARK COLVIN: Josie Crawshaw-Guy, ending Zoie Jones' report.