Artemis and Madilyn
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.
Artemis had cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and epilepsy, and was non-verbal. She was in her early 20s when she died. It was the mid-2010s.
Madilyn, her mother, told the Royal Commission she hurt her back when Artemis was still young, and felt she had no choice but to relinquish her daughter into state care.
About a decade ago, Artemis was moved to a new residential care unit. Her mother was fearful as Artemis’s support workers warned her the manager, Betty, was known as ‘a butcher’.
For a few years all seemed to be going well. But then someone informed Madilyn that Artemis was being abused. She phoned Betty who told her everything was fine and ‘not to listen to anybody’.
One time, Madilyn decided to turn up at the house and check for herself. When she arrived, she saw Artemis through the screen door. She was on the floor, screaming, hitting herself and banging her head on the ground. Despite the bruising on her face, Betty played it down. ‘She's always like that,’ Betty said. ‘You know … we just let her go, she's fine.’
Madilyn asked that Artemis be removed from the accommodation. Betty told her there was nowhere for her to go, and Madilyn didn’t know where else to turn.
Around this time, she noticed Artemis was losing ‘a lot of weight’. The support workers hadn’t informed her.
She complained to Betty that Artemis was only getting fed ‘chips and sauce’ for dinner. The home was taking money from Artemis’s Disability Support Pension for food, but Madilyn started bringing homecooked meals to her because of the substandard food the home was providing.
One day, Artemis was admitted to hospital with a bone infection. Madilyn said no-one at the hospital informed her because Betty had deliberately given them her old phone number.
The hospital discharged Artemis two days later. Soon after, Betty asked Madilyn to attend a medical clinic to approve a change in her daughter’s medication.
Madilyn arrived at the clinic on a very cold day to find Artemis ‘sitting on the wheelchair soaking wet’. Betty explained they had left Artemis outside ‘because she loves water’. ‘You left her under the rain in that cold weather?’ Madilyn asked, incredulous.
‘And while I am arguing with [Betty], the doctor … said, "Can you please sign this paper?” She put a paper on the table, because we were standing up when we were talking, three of us, and it is a little clinic, like a little – so she grabs the paper, she goes, "Quick, sign here." And I just grabbed it and I signed it.’
A few days later, Artemis returned to hospital still fighting the infection. She also had a severely lacerated tongue and was in septic shock.
Madilyn only learnt Artemis was back in hospital from her son. Medical staff had not contacted Madilyn and refused to provide any explanation about her daughter’s injuries. She overheard them say Artemis had fallen. One support worker told her on the phone, ‘We found her on the floor and the room was full of blood.’
Artemis died 10 days later.
‘And I will tell you what,’ Madilyn said, ‘no-one attended her funeral. No-one.’
The coroner found that Artemis had extensive bruising ‘on her shoulders, on her back, everywhere’.
‘The day that Artemis hurt her tongue, she'd been abused, she'd had a fall … she'd been abused physically and everything,’ Madilyn said.
Madilyn later learnt that the form she had signed at the clinic – that she assumed was about changes to medication – agreed to end of life ‘comfort measures only’ for Artemis. The doctor had not explained what the Advanced Care Plan meant. Madilyn said she had signed her daughter’s life away without knowing.
She wants her daughter’s story heard ‘to warn people to look after their children’.
‘These people, the one who was doing it to my daughter, are doing it to other kids too.’
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.