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Coroner's Finding: Tongs, Janetta Ann

Deceased

Janetta Ann Tongs

Demographics

55y, female

Date of death

2020-02-09

Finding date

2022-11-30

Cause of death

exsanguination due to a gunshot wound to the upper left chest

AI-generated summary

A 55-year-old woman with a 20-year history of depression died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. She had attempted suicide twice in 2019 (July and December) and was managed by her general practitioner and Tasmania Health Service, including crisis assessment and discharge team (CATT) and psychology services. The coroner found she was appropriately treated medically. Her death followed relationship breakdown, workplace stress, financial pressure, and estrangement from her children. The coroner made no recommendations, finding no medical management failures. Clinical lessons include the chronic nature of suicide risk in depression, limitations of short-term crisis intervention, and the complexity of protecting vulnerable patients with access to lethal means.

AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.

Contributing factors

  • chronic depression (20 years)
  • relationship breakdown
  • estrangement from children
  • workplace stress and reduced hours
  • financial pressure
  • caring responsibilities for grandson with developmental issues
  • previous suicide attempts in 2002, July 2019, and December 2019
  • access to firearms
Full text

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.

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