A widow whose young son attempted suicide 12 months before her Army veteran husband took his own life was initially denied compensation on the grounds “mental illness just runs in your family”, a royal commission has been told.
Madonna Paul told the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide on Monday her husband Michael, an aircraft fitter, had been discharged from the Army in 1994 after a Nomad aircraft he had worked on crashed, killing four people, including a close friend.
She told the inquiry at the time there had been little understanding about PTSD, and her husband’s mental health deteriorated to the point he was violent and couldn’t work, which had a devastating impact on their two sons.
She said 12 months after her husband’s death she was diagnosed with a rare pituitary tumour, which her specialist explained to her was only ever observed among Bosnian prisoners of war who had been tortured or patients who had endured “extreme stress and trauma”.
The inquiry heard at the urging of an aviation advocate she had met with Department of Veterans Affairs officers to discuss applying for a death benefit, both for herself and for her husband.
Ms Paul said the DVA officer had told her: “I don’t think you deserve any compensation because mental illness just runs in your family because your son attempted (suicide) 12 months before your husband did so you shouldn’t be paid any of this money.”
“I do not remember anything that was said really after that.”
The hearing, in Hobart, continues on Tuesday.
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