Coroner's Finding: RAYNER Augustine Durham
Deceased
Augustine Durham Rayner
Demographics
88y, male
Date of death
2015-03-09
Finding date
2017-04-19
Cause of death
bilateral acute bronchopneumonia on a background of chronic obstructive airways disease
AI-generated summary
An 88-year-old man with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic schizophrenia died of bilateral acute bronchopneumonia while subject to a Mental Health Act detention order at a teaching hospital. He was admitted after being found unkempt and homeless, detained due to aggressive behaviour and refusal of medical care, and was awaiting psychiatric ward placement when he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. The coroner found the detention order lawful, medical treatment appropriate, and made no recommendations. The clinical lesson is that patients with untreated mental illness may present in poor physical condition requiring medical stabilisation before psychiatric management; rapid deterioration can occur despite apparent clinical stability.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Clinical conditions
Procedures
Contributing factors
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- chronic schizophrenia
- poor self-care and social isolation
- homelessness and poor living conditions
- mental health deterioration
Full text
Related cases
Source and disclaimer
This page reproduces or summarises information from publicly available findings published by Australian coroners' courts. Coronial is an independent educational resource and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any coronial court or government body.
Content may be incomplete, reformatted, or summarised. All court orders for redaction and non-publication are respected; documents with technically defective redaction have been excluded from the database entirely. Always refer to the original court publication for the authoritative record.
Copyright in original materials remains with the relevant government jurisdiction. AI-generated summaries and tagging are for educational purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and must not be treated as legal documents. We welcome feedback for correction —