Hold – Disability Day of Mourning

No Photo Name: Uma.
Died: May 11, 2024.
Age at death: 38.
Cause of death: Head injury.
Location: Poorandampalayam, Tamil Nadu, India.
Disability: Unspecified.

Details:
Uma’s husband, who had just been out to pay a bill, was angry that his wife had written down their phone number instead of their account number for him. So he went to a bar, got drunk, and allegedly went home and pushed his wife to the ground. As she fell she hit her head severely, and her intoxicated husband did not notice how badly she was hurt. In the morning he got up and found his wife dead.

Case Status:
Dharmaraj (Husband), charged with murder.

Sources:
Man murders disabled wife over family dispute, arrested
Labourer arrested for murdering wife

No Photo Name: Stella Hamilton.
Died: July 31, 2016.
Age at death: 72.
Cause of death: Undetermined.
Location: Malanda, Queensland, Australia.
Disability: Dementia, terminally ill.

Details:
Stella’s family talked to staff at her nursing home, asking whether she could be euthanized, and were told that this was illegal. They also requested that 24 hours’ worth of morphine be left in her room, and were refused. One of her children said another had told them that if they covered her face, she would “go quicker”. Shortly after the family’s request for euthanasia, Stella was found dead with a blanket over her face. She could not have pulled the blanket up herself, but other residents theoretically had access to her room. Her family was seen celebrating that she had died, though this could have been relief that she was no longer in pain.

Case status:
Inquest determined that, despite the troubling factors in Stella’s death, her cause of death could not be determined because she was already terminally ill.

Source:
Inquest into the death of Stella Hamilton
Mystery surrounds aged care resident found dead with blanket over head
Daughter asked doctor to euthanase terminally ill mother, inquest hears