‘Cavalier rather than caring’: Judge rejects doctor’s appeal against damning inquest findings
Warning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: This story contains references to a deceased person.
A doctor has lost his appeal against a coroner’s findings that criticised his management of an Aboriginal woman in custody, with a judge declaring he was “cavalier rather than caring”.
Dr Sean Runacres launched an appeal to quash some of the findings of Victorian coroner Simon McGregor, who referred him to AHPRA over his “inadequate” assessment of Veronica Nelson, 37, when she arrived at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
The coroner found his failure to physically examine Ms Nelson on New Year’s Eve 2019, set off a “chain of events” that ended in her preventable death three days later from chronic opioid use and Wilkie’s syndrome in the setting of malnutrition.
