Woman's family wrongly told she was dead in hospital identity error

A Melbourne hospital apologises after mixing up the medical data of two people, resulting in one of them being wrongly declared dead by police. Michelle Buckley says family members were traumatised after police wrongly told them she had died. ( ABC News: Richard Sydenham ) A Melbourne hospital has apologised after mixing up the identities of two people, resulting in one of them being wrongly declared dead by police.

Melbourne woman Michelle Buckley says she's still correcting medical records, weeks after her relatives were told she had died. Ms Buckley has engaged a lawyer to investigate how the error occurred and Werribee Mercy Hospital is reviewing the incident. Michelle Buckley vividly remembers the moment she was told she was supposed to be dead.

It was a Saturday night in May, and the 54-year-old had been making pizzas at home when her former partner received a message. "He said: 'Oh my God. You're never going to believe what it says', Ms Buckley said.

"He brought his computer over, and there was a message from my brother's girlfriend saying, 'I'm really sorry to hear that Michelle's passed away'. "I just felt like time stood still. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Minutes later, Ms Buckley's phone rang. It was her family. "I could hear them crying … My poor older aunty and my cousins, everybody had been notified, Ms Buckley said.

Ms Buckley would quickly learn that Queensland Police, at the behest of Victoria Police, had knocked on her brother's door and had told him his sister was dead. Ms Buckley said the ordeal had left her family shaken and traumatised, especially after the death of her parents a couple of years earlier. "I feel ashamed and guilty, in a weird way, that my family went through this, Ms Buckley said.

"My aunt had to go and stay with my cousins for a week or so because she was so upset. That same night, Ms Buckley contacted Victoria Police to inform them that she was, in fact, not dead and also to understand how the mistake had been made. She was stunned when she learnt the body of a woman had been found in Melbourne's west, with patient documents from Werribee Mercy Hospital identifying her as Michelle Buckley.

Ms Buckley called Werribee Mercy Hospital twice the following day for an explanation. She was told nobody could speak to her and that she needed to contact police. It would be another 10 days before she finally heard back.

"I was just beside myself, I thought 'please, just tell me what happened', Ms Buckley said. Werribee Mercy Hospital says it's investigating the incident. ( ABC News: Margaret Paul ) Ms Buckley's anxiety only intensified when she checked her medical information on online portal My Health Record and realised the deceased woman's medical history had been mixed in with her own.

Ms Buckley's health record, seen by the ABC, showed various hospital appointments and medical tests belonging to the other woman, dating back months. To make matters worse, Ms Buckley had also been undergoing medical treatment.