MY FIGHT TO STOP CARE HOME KILLERS
Aged care angel Charli launched an investigation into nursing homes after her mum was murdered
Charli Darragh’s adored mum Marie loved a beer, the occasional cheeky cigarette and the Brisbane Broncos. “She was a beautiful, proud lady too,” says Charli. “She was as sharp as a tack, right up until she died.”
On May 10, 2014, Marie Darragh was murdered by night nurse Megan Haines, who injected the 82-year-old with a lethal dose of insulin after she and two other residents at the St Andrews Village nursing home in Ballina, NSW, complained about her cruel behaviour. Marie’s friend Isabella Spencer, 77 also died.
“When Mum told me how frightened she was of Haines, I urged her to dob her in,” says Charli, 60, one of Marie’s three children. “I told her not to worry and said; ‘What’s she going to do if you complain? Murder you?’”
HAUNTING WORDS
Those words have haunted Charli in the four years since her mum’s senseless death. “I never imagined that’s what would happen. I still can’t believe Mum was murdered in her bed by someone who was supposed to care for her.”
Marie had lived at St Andrews for three-and-a-half years before Haines killed her. She moved there after a fall and because of her deteriorating eyesight.
“It took her a little while to settle but eventually Mum made some lovely friends in St Andrews, and she enjoyed a laugh with the staff,” says Charli. “They called her the ‘Sugar Fairy’ because she used to pinch sugar sachets to help curb cravings when she gave up cigarettes.”
Charli, who lives on the Gold Coast, travelled down to Ballina every fortnight to visit her mum.
“She loved our outings,” says Charli. “We’d go for a drive and get prawns, oysters or a Chinese meal for lunch, whatever Mum wanted.”
When she wasn’t with her mum, Charli spoke to her every day at 9am. Usually the pair chatted about the latest Broncos game or what happened in Days Of Our Lives, but one morning, in May 2014, Marie was sobbing when Charli rang.
COMPLAINTS
“Mum said a new nurse was really horrible to her and her friends,” says Charli.
“Haines had called her ‘disgusting’, refused to take her to the toilet and told her to ‘piss in her pad’.”
Marie also told Charli that Haines had been rough with her friends.
“I urged Mum to tell the director of nursing and promised I’d complain, too,” she says. “Mum was terrified, but I said not to worry.”
On the day she died, Marie and two other residents bravely banded together and lodged their complaints.
The nurse, who’d faced misconduct investigations while working in Victoria, was warned by her supervisor at St Andrews that she faced a disciplinary hearing – but was allowed to continue her shift. That night Haines injected Marie and Isabella with the insulin that killed them.
HELPING OTHERS
“For ages I thought it was my fault that Mum was murdered,” says Charli. “I felt so guilty because I’d told her to complain.”
The only way Charli could cope was to throw all her energies into helping other victims of nursing home abuses, vowing to make sure the vulnerable elderly don’t meet the same terrible fate as her beloved mother.
“Three months after Mum died I set up my Angels For The Elderly Facebook page,” she says. “It started so I could talk to other families who’d experienced problems with nursing homes.”
Since then, 100,000 people have connected with Charli via social media – including 1500 whistleblowing staffers, she says – and she now works to improve nursing home safety.
“It’s our loved ones in these homes and we must be able to trust in their care,” she says.
Charli wants all nursing homes to introduce CCTV or security cameras throughout the facilities, and is pushing for an improvement in staff patient ratios and an overhaul of food standards.
“If I’d had a camera in Mum’s room, she’d be alive today,” says Charli, whose campaign helped pressure the federal government into holding a royal commission into aged care. “I’m doing this work in Mum’s honour,” she says. “When I was 12, I sang Climb Every Mountain in a school performance of The Sound Of Music. I was nervous so my beautiful mum stood up and sang with me. She always climbed mountains for me, so I’ll keep climbing for her. I hope she’d be proud.”
‘I felt so guilty because I’d told her to complain’