A local woman faced an unimaginable ordeal when her family was mistakenly informed of her death, a shocking error that originated from a profound identity mix-up within the healthcare system. Michelle Buckley, 54, vividly recalls the moment she learned she was supposedly deceased, an experience that has left her and her loved ones deeply traumatised.

The distressing news reached Ms. Buckley's family on a recent Saturday evening, starting with a message to her former partner. "Oh my God. You're never going to believe what it says," he reportedly exclaimed, showing her a message from her brother's girlfriend expressing condolences for her passing. Moments later, her phone rang with her crying family on the line, aghast to hear her voice. "I could hear them crying… My poor older aunty and my cousins, everybody had been notified," Ms. Buckley recounted, describing the feeling as utterly surreal.

Family Traumatised by Incorrect Death Notification

The false notification stemmed from Queensland Police, acting on behalf of Victoria Police, who had knocked on her brother's door to deliver the devastating news. From there, the grim tidings spread rapidly through her family. The incident has caused immense emotional distress, particularly following the recent deaths of Ms. Buckley's parents. She expressed a profound sense of guilt, feeling responsible for the pain her family endured, noting that her aunt had to seek comfort with cousins for a week due to her upset.

Desperate for answers, Ms. Buckley immediately contacted Victoria Police that same night to confirm she was alive and well and to understand the source of the egregious error. She was stunned to learn that the body of a woman found in Melbourne's west had been misidentified, with patient documents from Werribee Mercy Hospital listing her as Michelle Buckley.

Critical Health Record Breach Uncovered

The following day, Ms. Buckley made two attempts to contact Werribee Mercy Hospital for an explanation, only to be told no one could speak with her and that she needed to speak with police. It would be ten agonizing days before she finally received a response from the hospital. Her anxiety escalated further when she checked her online medical portal, My Health Record, and discovered that the deceased woman's medical history had been erroneously merged with her own.

This critical breach meant Ms. Buckley's personal health record displayed various hospital appointments and medical tests belonging to the other woman, spanning several months. This was particularly alarming as Ms. Buckley herself was undergoing medical treatment at the time. "I thought, 'Oh my God, I've had so many tests and scans, and some of them the same as this other person,'" she said, questioning the accuracy of her own test results. While Ms. Buckley resides in Werribee, she has never received treatment at Werribee Mercy Hospital, having only received a referral in the past. She considers herself fortunate that she did not need to attend the hospital during the period her records were compromised.

Two weeks after her initial contact, Mercy Health acknowledged the error in an email to Ms. Buckley. The communication confirmed that "another consumer with a very similar name has been managed wrongly under your own name," leading to "new entries added that were not related to yourself" in her Mercy file.

Hospital Knew of Repeated Misidentification

In a subsequent open disclosure meeting last month, a formal process for discussing patient harm, a Mercy Health representative made a shocking admission. The hospital staff had been informed on four separate occasions by the deceased woman herself, prior to her death, that her personal details were incorrect. Despite these repeated warnings, no action was taken to rectify the misidentification. The deceased woman had been in contact with Werribee Mercy Hospital and its community team for approximately six months and had been misidentified from the very beginning, reportedly due to a similar name and date of birth to Ms. Buckley. Tragically, the deceased woman was also experiencing homelessness.

"I'm devastated for the woman who's passed away," Ms. Buckley stated, expressing her hope that the woman received appropriate care despite the record mix-up. Victoria Police later confirmed the deceased was a 55-year-old woman, found by passers-by outside a Tarneit residence, with her death not being treated as suspicious. Police initially misidentified her as a 54-year-old Werribee woman based on documents found with her, leading to the incorrect notification to Ms. Buckley's family before her true identity was confirmed.

Legal Action Underway to Uncover Full Extent of Breach

Ms. Buckley has since engaged law firm Slater and Gordon to conduct a thorough investigation into how the initial misidentification occurred and, crucially, why it was allowed to persist for such an extended period. Public liability lawyer Kieren McKenzie described the case as unprecedented. "The simple fact is, I've never seen a case like this before. It's so rare and so novel that it's almost as if, in terms of investigating this claim, we'll have to do things differently and do almost a bespoke investigation," Mr. McKenzie commented, noting that the investigation into the alleged privacy breach could take months.

Mr. McKenzie underscored that this "Hollywood script" like scenario highlights the critical importance of rigorous processes around personal data and patient identification. "More than just something that has been written down on paper, what's happened here shows the actual human impact of how things like this can go wrong, and how they can affect people such as Michelle," he added.

Apologies and Commitment to Review

Mercy Health has issued an apology for the "mistaken identification" to all affected parties. A spokesperson affirmed that "Every patient has the right to expect that their identity and health information are managed safely and accurately," and stated that a thorough review is underway to understand the cause and implement improvements to patient identification processes, ensuring such an incident does not recur. Victoria Police has also formally apologised to Ms. Buckley for the distress caused by the misidentification and incorrect death notification, though Ms. Buckley remains critical of their verification procedures.

Two months on, Ms. Buckley continues the arduous task of untangling her medical records, spending hours on the phone with various agencies. "There are still some things I don't know if they're hers or mine," she said. "It's still really hard to get my head around what's happened. But I'd like to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else."