‘I woke up crying… I couldn’t walk’: Indigenous teenager who was found abandoned outside a emergency department after a drug overdose slams hospital for ‘kicking her out’
- Khaliyha McKellar found collapsed in own vomit outside St Vincent’s Hospital
- Allegedly left to fend for herself after being discharged from Melbourne hospital
- Ms McKellar said she was fearing for her life because she was dragged out
- Shocking images and vision showed her curled up unresponsive on the ground
- The hospital has since apologised to the teenager and launched an investigation
An Aboriginal teenager who was found unresponsive outside an emergency department after staff allegedly refused to treat her said she ‘feared she was going to die’.
Khaliyha McKellar, 18, was found collapsed in her own vomit outside St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne on May 31 after overdosing on GHB.
Other patients and visitors were forced to stay by her side for three hours after Ms McKellar was allegedly discharged and thrown out into the cold by the hospital.
Ms McKellar said she has no recollection of being treated and remembers waking up in tears in the cold.
Khaliyha McKellar, 18, (pictured) was found collapsed and unresponsive outside a Melbourne hospital emergency department
Ms McKellar pictured outside the hospital. Another patient said she was forced to pull a blanket off her own bed to keep the teenager warm until her family arrived
‘They were sticking their fingers in my back – poking me to wake me up,’ she told 7News.
‘I woke up crying and then I was dragged outside and I couldn’t walk. I could have died.’
An inpatient at St Vincent’s Audrey Kearns said she had to pull a blanket off her own bed to keep Ms McKellar warm until her family arrived.
She described the treatment of the young woman as a ‘travesty and downright disgusting’ in a social media post.
‘Both myself and my roommate at the hospital had words with security pleading that she be taken back inside as she was laying there with no blanket, no shoes and was possibly at risk of choking on her own vomit,’ Ms Kearns said.
‘We were simply told it wasn’t their problem and she had been seen by a medical professional.’
Ms McKellar said she has no recollection of being treated and remembers waking up in tears
‘They just chucked her out and I said ‘why are you just leaving her on the ground and they said she has already been treated”, Ms Kearns said.
The hospital has since apologised to the young indigenous teenager and launched an investigation into her treatment.
‘I’m deeply concerned about the contents of this video and the incident and what’s occurred here,’ St Vincent’s CEO Angela Nolan said in a statement.
‘This is not who we are and not what we are about at St Vincent’s and we are investigating the matter.’
St Vincent’s inpatient Audrey Kearns (pictured) said she had to pull a blanket off her own hospital bed to keep Ms McKellar warm until her family arrived
After footage of the abandoned teenager was shared online, Ms McKellar confirmed it was her who was pictured outside the hospital.
She alleged on Facebook she was dragged outside the hospital while vomiting and barely able to walk.
‘That same day my heart stopped. They dragged me outside after poking their fingers in my back and while they dragged me I was collapsing and spewing – I couldn’t even walk or anything,’ she said.