Flore and Dulcie
Content Warning: These stories are about violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation and may include references to suicide or self-harming behaviours. They may contain graphic descriptions and strong language and may be distressing. Some narratives may be about First Nations people who have passed away. If you need support, please see Contact & support.
Dulcie is a First Nations woman. She is a mother of three and lives in regional Australia.
Six years ago Dulcie’s husband died suddenly, sending the family into crisis.
Dulcie was hospitalised with depression and had to relinquish care of her teenage daughter, Flore, who had autism, epilepsy, pulmonary hypertension and an intellectual disability.
Dulcie told the Royal Commission that she made attempts to continue to care for her daughter, but said she received no support.
'I was never helped by any agencies to keep [Flore] … with her family. Can you imagine what she felt, being off country, away from her people?’
So Flore lived in multiple residential facilities which, Dulcie says, failed to meet her medical and high support needs.
For example, staff at the last facility left Flore with an untreated urinary tract infection for weeks. The pain and discomfort resulted in ‘escalating behaviour’. While showering her, staff used pure bleach to alleviate the smell of the untreated infection, causing Flore’s seizures to increase.
During this period, family members of other residents told Dulcie they had heard staff calling Flore racist names, such as ‘Black C**t’.
In her early 20s, Flore was diagnosed with an enlarged heart and was being treated by a cardiologist.
Dulcie warned staff at the residential unit that Flore was never to be given the dye used in angiograms – the tests used to look at blood vessels in the heart. There was a family history of adverse reactions to the dye. Flore also had a condition that prevented her body breaking down certain fats. This meant she was unable to fast for surgical procedures.
Flore’s medical history was complex and Dulcie insisted on attending all Flore’s medical appointments.
But no-one told Dulcie about the cardiologist appointment that would end up being Flore’s last.
‘What’s killing me is I wasn’t there that day my baby girl died. I would have been there if they’d told me there was an appointment.’
On the day Flore died, Dulcie missed a call from the manager of the residential unit. When she returned the call the manager told her she couldn’t talk because something was wrong with Flore. She didn’t elaborate.
Desperate for answers Dulcie rang the closest hospital only to discover Flore was in a different town. Hospital staff here told her not to come to the hospital but to go to the police station.
Travelling there, Dulcie vaguely remembers someone telling her, ‘she’s gone’.
The police told Dulcie she would not be able to see Flore until the next day. When she went to the hospital the next morning, her body was behind a glass screen and Dulcie was not allowed to touch her. It would not be until Flore’s body was eventually returned home that Dulcie would be able to hold her daughter.
On the day Flore died, two male support workers from the residential facility had transported her to the cardiologist appointment.
‘How would my girl have felt being undressed by men,’ Dulcie asks. ‘She didn’t deserve that, they should have sent her with female staff. It’s just not okay.’
At the cardiologist’s, Flore was given a coronary angiogram. After 30 minutes the procedure was stopped and Flore was left in a dark room, unsupervised, ‘to rest’.
Dulcie believes Flore died in this room and not in the hospital.
She wants to know who signed the consent form for the angiogram and if Flore was made to fast. ‘They knew she couldn’t fast or she would go into a fatal coma.’
Dulcie requested an autopsy and coronial inquest, but the Coroner stated ‘the date, place, manner and cause’ of Flore’s death ‘was sufficiently disclosed’.
Dulcie tried to speak to the residential unit manager but no-one from the organisation would talk to her.
In fact no staff from the facility have contacted Dulcie since Flore died, not even to offer condolences.
‘Her belongings were just packed in a removalist truck … [Flore] meant nothing to them! She always carried a little bag with her personal belongings, and this was never returned!’
‘I don’t want to be this angry person,’ Dulcie says ‘but I want answers for my baby’.
Disclaimer: This is the story of a person who shared their personal experience with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability through a submission or private session. The names in this story are pseudonyms. The person who shared this experience was not a witness and their account is not evidence. They did not take an oath or affirmation before providing the story. Nothing in this story constitutes a finding of the Royal Commission. Any views expressed are those of the person who shared their experience, not of the Royal Commission.