A woman who was detained with First Nations woman Shiralee Tilberoo saw her lying beside a “river of vomit” and told officers to take her to hospital before she died in a Queensland watch house, an inquest has heard.
The 49-year-old Birri Gubba woman – also known as Aunty Sherry – died of a brain aneurysm in the Brisbane watch house in the early hours of the morning on 10 September 2020.
A joint inquest is examining Tilberoo’s death and that of Vlasta Wylucki, who died in the Southport watch house in 2018.
Tamsyn White was in the cell next to Tilberoo on 6 and 7 September 2020.
She told the inquest on Friday that she didn’t see Tilberoo eat a single meal and heard her vomiting “constantly”.
“I just remember it was a little river of vomit from her bed to the drain,” White told the inquest.
“I watched her refuse breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can’t remember how many meals I was at the watch house for, but I can’t remember seeing her eat one.”
White had also been vomiting at the time, as she was pregnant and suffering from morning sickness.
When a female watch house officer asked if she would like to go to the hospital, White said she pointed out that Tilberoo needed medical attention.
“A female officer asked if I needed to go to hospital … I said, ‘why don’t you take [Tilberoo] to the hospital?’,” she told the inquest.
“She’s been throwing up all day … and they offered me a transfer to the hospital for me vomiting once.”
The inquest heard White expressed her frustrations and shock over how Tilberoo was treated in a now-deleted Facebook post.
“I got out of the watch house … My friend picked me up and the first thing I was talking about was Aunty Sherry and how messed up it was,” White told the inquest.
“I’ve been in watch houses [before] and I’ve never seen someone so sick, someone vomiting on the floor and [no one] doing anything about it.”
The 21-year-old said she first learned Tilberoo had died when her friend sent her a link to a news article.
“I just felt pretty sick … like why didn’t I do more? Why didn’t I say something or buzz [the watch house officers]?”
White said she felt uncomfortable speaking out about Tilberoo’s condition at the time as she had court matters pending and had also felt that officers were “slack”.
“You’d be flat out to get a Panadol in there,” she said.
“[The watch house officers] sit around and talk, watch the footy on the TV, eat, heat up food – they don’t really give any attention. I know I’m not at a hotel and they don’t need to attend to me all the time, but they don’t really care.”
Watch house nurse John Gommersall told the inquest that he could “not recall” seeing Tilberoo vomit, but remembered she was quite thin. He said she had been using up to $300 of heroin a day before her arrest and was undergoing withdrawal.
Gommersall said Tilberoo had declined to see a nurse for several days before eventually agreeing to see them on 9 September.
“We formulated the plan to treat her opioid withdrawal symptoms. She said she was having problems with swallowing and eating and drinking. And we were helping that plan to be instigated,” he told the inquest.
The joint inquest continues on Monday.
