Andrea
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.
Andrea had a stroke when she was a baby. She has an intellectual disability and slight paralysis and, now in her 70s, lives at home with support from a family member and support workers.
‘I have falls and need helpers to come to the house to shower me and dress me,’ Andrea told the Royal Commission. ‘I can’t put my own shoes or socks on and I can't go out very often as I also have epilepsy.’
One day, when visiting a friend’s house, Andrea fell. She didn’t seem hurt at first, but when she later went to a private hospital for an oncology appointment, a doctor noticed her hand was bruised. An x-ray revealed two broken fingers, for which she was treated.
After she went home, the pain increased and she couldn’t move. Her family doctor organised an ambulance to take her to the emergency department of a local public hospital.
‘They put me in a bed and then I asked to use the toilet.’
Instead of helping her to the toilet, the staff removed her clothes without asking, and put her in an incontinence pad.
‘I kept saying I want to keep my knickers on and my long trousers. They even took my top off me without asking me.’
Andrea said the doctor treating her was rude and refused to give her pain relief, including paracetamol.
‘She was a nasty, horrible, mean doctor.’
By then, Andrea was in a lot of pain.
‘They did not check where I said it hurt and didn’t do any tests on me and didn't believe me where I said it hurt.’
Andrea said the doctor wouldn’t give her her epilepsy medication.
‘The doctor said, “No, I am not giving them to you.” All I got was a sandwich and one glass of water for the day, and [the doctor] said I couldn't have any more.’
Meanwhile, Andrea said, she heard the medical staff calling her carer, a family member, ‘stupid’.
‘I hated them talking about him like that because he had arranged my doctor to send me to the hospital because I was in pain and falling over.’
Andrea's treating doctor at the hospital phoned her carer to tell him to pick her up.
‘We were told to leave with no help walking or a wheelchair.’
After the public hospital emergency department discharged her, Andrea’s pain became worse.
‘I couldn’t move or get out of bed and was screaming for my [carer] to help me.’
He called an ambulance again, but a doctor from the emergency department at the public hospital called him back. She suggested Andrea was ‘faking’ her pain.
Andrea’s carer instead took her to the private hospital. Here doctors discovered Andrea had multiple fractures in her pelvic region, including fractures of the sacrum and coccyx.
Andrea said she would never go back to the public hospital emergency department while the rude doctor worked there.
She wants to go to hospitals where people can ‘be looked after kind and properly and not have nasty people working with disabled patients’.
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.