Perth Voice Interactive

“I WANT to go home,” Barbara Campbell, 87, says, unable to finish lunch at Mercy Hospital in Mt Lawley. “I can’t believe it has happened.”

The frail North Perth grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of four told the Voice she had been held against her will since suffering a fall at home two weeks ago.

The mother of lawyer the late Penny Easton, Mrs Campbell describes her experience with WA’s hospital system as an “incredible journey”.

She says a psychiatrist visted her Tuesday and she’s fearful she will be certified.

“I told her I was being kept here a prisoner.”

She says her family is concerned about her blood sugar levels and is convinced, “I’m in the right place”.

Importantly, Mrs Campbell has not been advised of any order providing a third party with the legal right to detain her against her wishes.

Mercy hospital management is tight-lipped for legal reasons, a spokesperson saying only “the issue is being managed”.

Mrs Campbell was admitted to Royal Perth Hospital two weeks ago when she fell trying to bring inside her portable clothes hoist.

“I cut my head and I could feel the blood,” she told the Voice, which visited her at Mercy, where she had been transferred after a week at RPH.

She says she’d tried to leave RPH on a walker but was physically restrained after attempting to leave via reception.

“Next thing I know I’m in an ambulance on my way to Mercy,” she says. “They won’t even give me a walker, they’re worried I might scoot out of here.”

Mrs Campbell says the hospital is ignoring her pleas to return home, citing her diabetes as a reason for keeping her put.

“I have had diabetes for a long time,” she says. “Why suddenly is it a problem?”

by CARMELO AMALFI