A Melbourne woman has launched legal action after she was wrongly told she had died, despite being very much alive.
Michelle Buckley, 54, was making pizza at her Werribee home in May when her former partner received a message offering condolences for her death.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Woman mistakenly declared dead by hospital
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“I can’t tell you what it’s like. It’s so surreal to be told that you’re dead,” Buckley told the ABC.
The news quickly spread after police knocked on the door of Buckley’s brother, leaving family members devastated.
Buckley said her aunt was so distressed she stayed with family for a week to grieve.
Buckley said being told she had died was “so surreal”. Credit: ABC
Buckley contacted Victoria Police the same day to report she was alive.
Police told her another woman, who had a similar name and was just one year older, had died.
The homeless woman was found dead outside a Tarneit home on May 13.
Police said her death was not being treated as suspicious and she was initially identified using patient documents she was carrying from Werribee Mercy Hospital that identified her as Michelle Buckley.
Buckley later found that the woman’s patient records had been mistakenly linked to her own.
When she checked her My Health Record account, she realised the other woman’s medical history had been mixed with hers for several months.
“I thought, ‘Oh my God. I’ve had so many tests and scans, and some of them the same as this other person,’” Buckley said.
“I thought, ‘Have I been given the right results?’” she said.
Buckley found her medical records had been merged with another woman for months. Credit: Supplied
Buckley said she had never attended Werribee Mercy Hospital. She thinks her only interaction with them was when she had a referral to a specialist
Two weeks after Buckley became aware of the mix-up, Werribee Mercy Hospital confirmed there had been a misidentification.
“You would have learnt from police that another consumer with a very similar name has been managed wrongly under your own name,” the hospital wrote in an email.
“This resulted in your Mercy file having new entries added that were not related to yourself.”
The hospital also acknowledged the deceased woman had repeatedly raised concerns that her personal details were incorrect, but the issue was not resolved.
Werribee Mercy Hospital has apologised and said it was conducting a thorough review. Credit: 7NEWS
In a statement, Mercy Health apologised and said it was conducting a thorough review.
“We are deeply sorry to the patients and family involved and to everyone affected. Every patient has the right to expect that their identity and health information are managed safely and accurately,” a spokesperson said.
“We are undertaking a thorough review to understand how this occurred and to identify any improvements needed to strengthen our patient identification processes and ensure that it does not occur again.
More than two months later, Buckley said she was still trying to correct her medical records.
She has engaged Slater and Gordon to investigate how the error occurred and why it went undetected for so long.
Lawyer Kieren McKenzie described it as unlike anything he had encountered.
“I’ve never seen something like this. Having spoken with some colleagues, we all agree this is a completely new and novel case,” he said.
“Imagine having to confirm your identity and the person on the other side of the phone says, there it is, I can see your date of death.”
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