Media Attack

The Media steps in

The main concern of the media is to entertain and inform rather than to resolve the problem reported, but nonetheless, it played a crucial role in the development of the Chelmsford case. The media was instrumental in raising public alarm in the 1980s in regards to the events that occurred at Chelmsford Hospital, encouraging the government to act and bring justice to the sufferers.

Patients of the Chelmsford Hospital were under great pressure, stigma problems, taboos issues, they often believed what they saw happened were visions of their own imagination. Those who tried to speak up from inside and outside the hospital had nowhere to turn to. Finally complaints reached the media but it was long after that did the official actions begin to take place.

On May 1967, a death of a patient at Chelmsford was reported followed by disturbing stories at the Hospital with evidence about the hospital's incompetence and carelessness. Years passed accumulating uncovered stories of hundreds of injuries and deaths, but they were either ignored or cleverly covered up. Between 1967 and 1990, the Sydney Morning Herald published 66 articles on Chelmsford. In 1977, the Church of Scientology joined the campaign against Dr Bailey; the campaign had hospital records stolen by Chelmsford nurses and was lead by a young volunteer working with the Citizens Commission on Human Rights.

The television program 60 Minutes was particularly successful at exposing Chelmsford. Anthony McClellan and Ray Martin set off to investigating the activities taking place at the private hospital with little idea of how much they were going to uncover. Patients would be put into drug induced sleep for a period of times, normally three weeks, and treated with ECT while they were unconscious. Investigations revealed cases such as Antonios Xigis , who died 2 days after he was admitted to Chelmsford with post- traumatic depression. Being told prior that he would be cured after a restful sleep, he never woke up. Antonios Xigis was one of the first 26 deaths and 22 suicides of DST patients. Nurses informed 60 Minutes with evident documents that patient histories were written in pencil so they could be altered later if applicable and many false death certificates had been written. McClellan uncovered horrifying patterns of patients with nothing physically wrong admitted to the hospital and was later taken to Hornsby Hospital nearly so that the death would appear to be unrelated to Chelmsford.

One of the cases especially famous was the case of Barry Hart. Hart was suffering from depression, he went to for treatment to Dr Herron at Chelmsford on 28 Feb 1973 and was anxious at the sight of the patient conditions there. Hart attempted to leave, only to be stopped by a nurse who gave him a tablet to relax; little did he know that the tablet will render him unconscious. When Hart woke up 10 days later, he was immediately transferred to Hornsby District Hospital by the ambulance which treated him for double pneumonia, pleurisy and a blood clot in his lung. He sustained brain damage as a result of ECT and because of that it took him 7 years to make solicitors believe him (to be not crazy) and get the case to trial. 

After the 60 Minutes “The Chelmsford Scream” was aired, numerous of letters were received asking them to investigate other deaths at Chelmsford. People who had no one to turned to suddenly saw some hope in telling their stories, they’ve stopped their failed complaint attempts and all turned to the media exposing more and more abuse incidences. Eventually the New South Wales Parliament called in for a public inquiry, the announcement was made on May 1988 of ‘a Royal Commission with its terms of reference narrowed to focus on the deaths and injuries consequent of deep sleep therapy at Chelmsford.’

Barry Hart

The trial for Barry Hart lasted four and a half months in the NSW Supreme Court, 1980. The trial judge summed up against Hart for two and a half days, mis-quoting the evidence and facts, viewed Hart as having only suffered a couple of weeks inconvenience due to complications of a medical treatment. Nonetheless, Hart won the lawsuit against John Herron and also the verdict from the jury on false imprisonment and assault and battery by the hospital and doctors, he was given $60,000 in damages. The trial judge on the other hand fined Hart personally $171,205.74 on a cost order which left Hart hopelessly in debt. Adding to the cost, the Legal Aid Commission took $18,000 directly from Hart’s verdict money to pay their barristers. After that followed another 17 years of encountering with the NSW Appeal Court, which stopped all complaints by Hart and other Chelmsford victims against doctors, the Royal Commission and NSW legal system, and 24 years after the torture, Hart remained in poverty on a disability pension. Barry Hart gave a speech in Port Macquarie in April 1996 talking about his whole experience.

On Sept 2009, Sydney Morning Herald published the article “Chelmsford victim gets a legal ray of hope, but it’s 36 years over due’ The 74 years old Barry Hart received the news that the Supreme Court hearing pursued a negligence case against Cashman and Partners (Hart’s previous lawyers) for allegedly mishandling his efforts to get compensation for PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder). When asked if a court victory would help him with anything, Hart answered ‘nothing’, what he got was ‘incurable’. He said that if he got a fair compensation he wouldn't have to be scrounging around to live (which may help), but after 36 years of battle, the official acknowledgement of his ordeal was the greatest victory.

Today the media continues to increase public scrutiny on the mentally ill living conditions and shocking death rates in mental care. There’s a website named ‘Chelmsford Victims Action Group’ which continues to inform about the Chelmsford incidence and attempt to help the victims. Forums on Australian Opinions showed interest in ‘A survivors story’ about Barry Hart, quoting him

Electric shock treatments for mental health patients are growing in popularity again and patient numbers have increased by almost 30% in the past 5 years in NSW. Is this a start of a ‘slippery slope’ or a breakthrough in mental health? All we know is that this time the technology is more advanced and the media is sure to keep the public informed. 

Other links: 60 Minutes (first part of the video is related) and extract. 

                  The Age articles: MP hits at inquiry on deep sleep 

                  Books: Scapegoats for a profession: uncovering procedural injustice