"The death of my spouse"

I felt I was treated like sub human by staff because they could not seem to grasp the fact that me and my partner had been married for 18 years and lived in separate homes because we were both Disabled, (my partner from a brain injury and other mental health issues) and my Disability is a incomplete spinal cord injury and PTSD and anxiety disorder, ... my partner Died and no one bothered to notify me for two days even though I was on the next of kin and listed as their spouse.

I believe once they found out we both had a disability and was Aboriginal we were no longer a priority to be treated with dignity. In my opinion they had already determined to give my partner a destitute funeral and I am still fighting for a toxicology report the doctor said was not needed because I feel my partner might have overdosed on medication they were not to take unsupervised.

it has been  nigh mare, we are both middle aged this is why I think Aboriginal people don't live long in Australia, the unneeded stress we go through to care for our loved ones when in need or sick. I have never had to deal with anything like this before and it is shocking, i ended up in the hospital the same day they rang me because of shock, because I had been trying to ring my partner for 2 days and got no answer. I was going to report them as a missing persons and the hospital finally rang me at lunch 2 day after my partner died - I'm heartbroken and gutted and appalled at how I was treated and continue to get treated. 

On top of that I was told no one knew where my spouse’s body had been taken ,,,, I did receive the first formal email finally telling me what happened and it was a miscommunication as to where my spouse’s body had been moved to, but no one told me, so I was frantic thinking they had lost their body, I still do not have clarification their body has been kept untouched at this point so I can arrange proper funeral arrangements because the hospital declared my spouse was destitute without my confirmation in writing or their intent to do so in writing. I feel they have totally disregarded me as next of kin and spouse. I am totally blown away at how someone grieving can be treated this way. Just because we were disabled and on a pension and old does not mean we should be treated as less than human. No one should be traumatized like this regardless of cultural background, Aboriginal or not.