Naomi Williams'mother,Sharon,centre,wants her daughter to have not died in vain.

Naomi Williams' mother,Sharon,centre,wants her daughter to have not died in vain.Credit:AAP

Ms Williams'former partner,Michael Lampe,said he would be"forever haunted by the pain and suffering"he saw her experience on the day of her death on January 1,2016.

"When I look back and read the text messages that she sent that night – asking for help with her pain – it makes me sick,"he said.

Naomi Williams and her unborn child died 15 hours after she left hospital on January 1,2016.

Naomi Williams and her unborn child died 15 hours after she left hospital on January 1,2016.

"During the time she was pregnant,she went[to hospital] again and again for her nausea. She would come home and tell me how tired she was of just being ignored. She felt like nobody was there listening to her."

Ms Williams'mother,Sharon,said her daughter had felt"invisible to the health system".

"She felt the system didn’t value her as a person and she felt the system didn’t believe her,"she said.

Acting rural group manager for the Riverina at the time,Maria Roche,admitted on Friday that the hospital would not have been meeting the needs of someone who had presented as many times as Ms Williams.

Advertisement

Ms Williams presented to hospital 18 times during her pregnancy,often vomiting and in pain,but was never referred to a specialist.

The inquest had earlier heard the claim Ms Williams had received"world-class care".

Under questioning,Ms Roche accepted there was a perception in the local Aboriginal community that Tumut Hospital was not a safe place for them and they did not feel heard.

She accepted these perceptions were"clinically dangerous"and that there was evidence some in the community would drive to elsewhere to avoid Tumut.

Ms Roche said there was not a staff member at Tumut whose job it was to drive improvement of the hospital's relationship with the Aboriginal community,nor was she aware of specific policies in that area. She agreed the hospital's cultural competency training was not working.

Loading

The barrister for Ms Williams'family,Craig Longman,asked if Ms Roche would support a suite of reforms that included developing protocols around community consultation,conducting minuted meetings between hospital staff and elders,ensuring at least two Aboriginal community members were on the local health advisory committee and implementing a reconciliation action plan.

A tearful Ms Roche said she would.

"Your emotion is because you also want change?"Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame asked Ms Roche.

"That’s exactly what I want. It’s exactly what we need,"she said.

In a statement to the court,Sharon Williams said she did not want her daughter to have"died in vain".

"We need people to look past the stereotypes and treat us in relation to our individual health issues,"she said."We deserve,like other Australians,to be treated with respect based in our common humanity."

The deputy coroner said she would make recommendations.

"What I'm hoping[is] we find some way of change,so someone doesn’t have to go through what your family has gone through,"she told Ms Williams'family.

Mr Lampe said he had not"been able to hold things together since[Naomi] died in front of my eyes".

"The pain I live with each day will never leave me,"he said."All our lives will never be the same."

Most Viewed in National

Loading