Hospital ‘a prison’ for smokers
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When Lynette Brunton’s daughter was admitted to a mental health ward, it was with a sigh of relief – finally she would get the help she needed. Instead, two weeks later, her daughter was dead. Chelsea Brunton, 21, was found dead in a suspected suicide on May 10, at a residential property in Palmerston North, four days after she went missing from Palmerston North Hospital’s mental health ward. Chelsea Brunton had to leave the hospital grounds to have a cigarette. From one such unsupervised trip she never returned. Her mother Lynette Brunton said she believed the only way to prevent another death like Chelsea’s was to change the smoking policy in place at the hospital. When Chelsea Brunton was admitted, Lynette Brunton said a nurse told her she was not allowed to smoke on hospital grounds, but she could smoke outside the hospital. But it wasn’t that easy. Unless Lynette Brunton was there to escort her daughter to the footpath outside the hospital, she was not allowed out. ‘‘She said ‘this is like a prison and if I had known, I would not have come’.’’ Attached to the mental health ward – ward 21 – is an area Lynette Brunton called the Garden of Tranquility, which she said would be perfect for patients to smoke in. ‘‘They can’t get out from there. It’s built into the ward and it’s fully enclosed.’’ Instead, patients were either denied a cigarette and offered patches, or sent off hospital grounds. ‘‘For people with mental health issues, that’s about the only thing they enjoy.’’
A hospital spokesman said an outdoor garden courtyard in ward 21 was previously used by smokers. However, the hospital went smokefree in 2015.
This meant all patients, visitors and staff had to go outside the hospital grounds to smoke.
Chelsea Brunton suffered from anxiety and depression and her mother said after she was admitted to ward 21 in May, she was put on new medication and told it would take two weeks to kick in.
‘‘I got her in there and I thought: ‘I can breathe a sigh of relief. She’s going to get looked after. She’s going to get better’.’’
For her first week at the ward, Chelsea Brunton was under surveillance, with someone even sitting outside her room at night to keep an eye on her.
Then, unknown to Lynette Brunton, it was decided Chelsea was allowed out for a cigarette break on May 6, by herself.
‘‘So they went from keeping a really close eye on her to letting her out within a day.’’
The last time Lynette Brunton saw her daughter was that morning, after Chelsea had received some bad news and asked for some space.
‘‘I said I would be back soon. I was picking up some things for her and that was the last time I saw her.’’
The hospital called Lynette Brunton to tell her her daughter was missing, but said patients often went missing for an hour or so and would normally return.
‘‘I always thought she would turn up or we would find her,’’ she said.
Police were informed and mounted a search, but Lynette Brunton said there was disconnect between the hospital, police and family.
‘‘Really it should have been the family, police and hospital sitting around together.
‘‘But it was the police going to the hospital, back to the family.’’
Getting CCTV footage was also slow and Lynette Brunton said initially, they had to guess what Chelsea was wearing – and they got it wrong.
‘‘If we had known what she was wearing that would have helped the public at least spot her.’’
Four days later, Chelsea Brunton’s body was found. ‘‘I never thought this was going to be the outcome.’’
Her brother, Phil Fisher, had visited ward 21 before the smoking ban and said the original smoking area attached to the ward was great for patients.
‘‘It worked really well. People could walk out there when they wanted to.’’
He believed the mental health ward should be exempt from the smoking ban.
Lynette Brunton said she decided to speak out as she did not want another family going through the torture they had.
A hospital spokesman said there were no plans to change the smokefree policy.
‘‘Support continues to be offered to assist smokers manage their addiction as well as to become smokefree.’’
He said CCTV footage was provided to police when requested and a hospital investigation into Chelsea Brunton’s death was under way.
Lynette Brunton wanted to thank the public for their help and support while her daughter was missing.
‘‘I got her in there and I thought: ‘I can breathe a sigh of relief. She’s going to get looked after. She’s going to get better’.’’ Lynette Brunton, Chelsea’s mother