Hospital silent on battered mother

Rotorua Hospital is refusing to release the condition of an elderly woman whose finger was bitten off and her eyes gouged when she was allegedly attacked by her mentally ill son.

Police said the 73-year-old woman faced the possibility of going blind and it is understood surgeons have been unable to save at least one of her eyes.

She had already lost any hope of having her severed right index finger reattached because it was not found when she was discovered seriously injured in her Ngongotaha home on Monday.

The Lakes District Health Board, which operates Rotorua Hospital, said yesterday it would not release details of her condition, after also refusing to do so the previous day.

Hospitals will usually say whether a patient is critical, serious or stable, without compromising the patient's privacy.

The Lakes board offered no explanation why it would not do so.

Police said that as well as her other injuries, the woman had been severely beaten and heavy items of furniture, including a single bed and chest of drawers, had been piled on top of her.

Her cries for help went unheard for a day.

The woman's 41-year-old son was found barricaded in a toilet in the house and was arrested and charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

He has been remanded in custody in Hamilton's secure mental health unit, the Henry Bennett Centre, for a psychiatric evaluation to be prepared before he appears in court next week.

Police said medical practitioners, including one of the man's doctors, had voiced concern about his deteriorating mental state in the days before the attack.

They said the man was a schizophrenic with a history of mental illness, and was under the care of his mother and a community mental health nurse.

It is not known where he lived, but it was not in a residential facility or with his mother.

A neighbour who had known the family for many years said the man had problems when he went off his medication and police had been called to his mother's house on several occasions when he became violent. The man was "a timebomb waiting to go off".

The Lakes board confirmed the man was known to its mental health service but would not reveal the type of care or treatment he had received.

The board is to launch an investigation into the incident and report the findings to agencies, including the Ministry of Health.

The ministry said yesterday an initial report would be filed with its director of mental health, Dr David Chaplow.

Dr Chaplow said the report would be for discussion and to determine future action.