ESCAPED PATIENT’S DEATH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18456, 18 January 1922, Page 6

ESCAPED PATIENT’S DEATH

WOMAN’S TRAGIC END. i_ LOST FOR THIRTEEN DAYS. AUTHORITIES’ STRANGE SILENCE. About 8 o’clock yesterday morning a Corporation workman named Alex- Stewart found a woman dying at the foot of a steep bank at the corner of Littleboumo road and the (Queen’s Drive. Dr Fitdhett was immediately sent lor but tne unfortunate woman died before he arrived. It now transpires that the deceased. Catherine Susan Macdonald, was a patient at the Dunedin Hospital, from whicu she escaped in her night attire in the early morning of January 4. The hospital authorities notified the police, but lor some reason known best to themselves neither followed the usual custom of informing the press, so that the attention of the puolic might be drawn to the fact that someone was missing and the recovery of the person rendered more probable. Thus it came about that the woman wandered at large for 13 days, without food oor clothing, until in her weakened condition she leil over a bank in the darkness and death put an end to all her troubles. , The deceased, who was a married woman, had been suffering from depression and was living apart from her husband From his evidence it is apparent that the hospital authorities did not even take the trouble to notify him that his wife had been admitted. The body was removed to the morgue, where an' inquest was opened by Mr H, Y. Widdowson, S.M., at mid-day. Sergeant Turner represented the police. Dr Fiteaett saicj deceased was under his care in the Hospital from December 20 till January 4. She was suffering, from mental depression, but she was rational in her conduct and there wore not sufficient grounds for her committal to a mental institution. During the early morning of January 4 she left the hospital in her night attire, and had not been heard of or seen till that morning. Abour four months ago she had gone into the bush when her child was taken from her. and she had been in ill-health ever since. Deceased had previously had influenza. She had denied any thought or intention of suicide. Witness was called and found her lying dead at the bottom of a steep bank some 15ft high in Queen’s Drive. The body was greatly emaciated, and there was an abrasion oyer one eye, probably, caused by her falling down the 'bank. The cause of death, in his opinion, was starvation, inanition, and exposure, accelerated by the fall. There wore indications at the top of the bank that deceased had fallen down. Deceased was a frail woman with a weak heaxt and lungs. William Macdonald, railway; employee, identified the body as that of his wife, who was about 45 years of age. Witness last saw her alive about the middle of December, and did not .know she had been in hospital until ho was told she had left it. There was a child about five years of age. He did not know she had had influenza or that she had been depressed. For years she had suffered with her nerves. Deceased was bom in Somersetshire, England, and had been in New Zealand about six years. The inquest was adjourned till the afternoon. : We understand that the child wfs placed in a Rest Homo by the mother shortly before the latter entered the hospital.