Woman's Family Told She Was Dead Due to Hospital Mistake
Topic: Data Privacy
Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at 5:16 am
Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at 5:49 am
Michelle Buckley's family was told she was dead, which was wrong.
In short:
A hospital in Melbourne mixed up two people's identities, and one was wrongly declared dead.
Michelle Buckley is still fixing her medical records after her family was told she died.
What's next?
Ms. Buckley has a lawyer to find out how the mistake happened, and the hospital is looking into it.
Michelle Buckley remembers when she was told she was supposed to be dead.
It was a Saturday night in May, and she was making pizzas at home when her ex-partner got a message.
He said, 'Oh my God, you won't believe what it says.'
He showed her a message from her brother's girlfriend saying she was sorry to hear Michelle had passed away.
Michelle felt like time stopped, and she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
A few minutes later, Michelle's phone rang, and it was her family.
They were shocked when she answered.
Michelle could hear her family crying, and her aunt and cousins had been told she was dead.
Michelle's family was shaken and traumatized by the mistake.
Michelle feels ashamed and guilty that her family went through this.
Her aunt had to stay with cousins for a week because she was so upset.
That night, Michelle called the police to tell them she was alive and to find out what happened.
She was shocked to learn that a woman's body had been found with Michelle's patient documents.
The health record mix-up
Michelle called the hospital twice the next day but was told no one could talk to her.
It took 10 days for her to finally get an answer.
Michelle was very upset and wanted to know what happened.
The hospital says it's looking into the incident.
Michelle's anxiety got worse when she saw the dead woman's medical history mixed with hers online.
Michelle's health record had the other woman's hospital appointments and tests from months before.
To make things worse, Michelle was getting medical treatment at the time.
She thought, 'Oh my God, have I been given the right results?'
Michelle has never been to Werribee Mercy Hospital, but she did get a referral once.
She feels lucky she didn't go to the hospital while her records were mixed up.
A hospital representative told Michelle about the misidentification in an email two weeks later.
The email said another person with a similar name had been treated under Michelle's name.
This meant Michelle's file had wrong information added to it.
Hospital admits it knew about the mistaken identity
Last month, Michelle met with a hospital representative to talk about what happened.
The hospital said it was sorry for the mistake and would look into how it happened.
The dead woman had told hospital staff her details were wrong, but nothing was done.
The woman had been in contact with the hospital for six months and was misidentified from the start.
Her name and birthdate were similar to Michelle's, and she had been homeless.
Michelle feels bad for the woman who died and hopes she was treated right.
A police spokesperson said the dead woman was 55, one year older than Michelle.
The woman's body was found outside a house in Tarneit, and her death is not suspicious.
Police said they misidentified the woman due to documents found with her.
The police told Michelle's family she was dead before finding out she was alive.
Never seen a case like this before
Michelle hired a lawyer to look into how the mistake happened and how it went on for so long.
The lawyer said the focus would be on understanding the full scale of the alleged privacy breach.
The lawyer has never seen a case like this before and will do a special investigation.
The case highlights the importance of taking care of personal data.
Lawyer Kieren McKenzie says his client's ordeal shows how important it is to have good processes for personal data.
The case is like a movie script and shows the human impact of mistakes like this.
Hospital and police apologize for the mistake
The hospital said it was sorry for the mistaken identification and would look into how it happened.
The hospital is doing a thorough review to understand what went wrong and to make sure it doesn't happen again.
The police also apologized for the distress caused to Michelle and her family.
Two months later, Michelle is still fixing her medical records and spending hours on the phone.
There are still some things she's not sure are hers or the other woman's.
Michelle wants to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else.
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