Coroner's Finding: Wright, Maria Rebekah

31y · Female·drowning, deliberately self-inflicted with intention of ending life

Maria Rebekah Wright, a 31-year-old woman with severe borderline personality disorder and chronic suicidality, died by drowning at Howrah Beach, Tasmania on 14 August 2017. She had been discharged from Royal Hobart Hospital on 10 August following a 5-day admission for paracetamol and lamotrigine overdose, during which she required mechanical restraints and life-saving N-acetylcysteine infusion. The coroner found her treatment at RHH was appropriate and likely life-saving, with excellent nursing care and proper documentation of restraint use. Despite a comprehensive, personalised multidisciplinary treatment plan involving psychiatry, psychology, and community mental health services, Mrs Wright remained at chronic high risk. The coroner concluded no deficits in her treatment contributed to her death and that no one could have prevented her suicide. The case illustrates the challenging management of treatment-resistant severe personality disorder with chronic suicidality despite appropriate specialist care.