Revalyn Naidoo was offered an opioid narcotic only minutes before she was discharged from a private hospital in a sedated state in January, 2012, and 40 minutes before she crashed her car on the 50-kilometre drive home. She recalled “waking up to my head hitting the roof of the car and being airborne and I blacked out again. The next thing was when the ambulance was there scooping up the teeth – my broken teeth from my mouth”, a court heard. NSW District Court Judge David Wilson, SC, has awarded Ms Naidoo nearly $100,000 plus legal costs after finding Brisbane Waters Private Hospital and her treating psychiatrist, Dr Larissa Grund, failed in their duty of care to her after she was allowed to drive home despite repeated warnings about her sedated state. In a judgment in December Judge Wilson found Ms Naidoo, 52, had a cold shower to try to wake herself up on January 17, 2012 before she was discharged, after she repeatedly fell asleep, including at breakfast, and after hospital nursing staff said her bed was needed for another patient. Judge Wilson accepted Ms Naidoo’s evidence that she was given a dose of the strong opioid narcotic OxyContin only hours before discharge. He also accepted her evidence that she questioned whether she should take a second OxyContin dose only minutes before her discharge and the 50 kilometre drive home from Woy Woy to north of Wyong.
