Riverina families say waiting to bury their loved one is the ‘worst pain’

But, as her family waited for Mark’s body to be released by authorities after an autopsy, the Gundagai woman found worse was to come.

“During those two weeks, the pain was many hundreds of times worse,” she said.

After the crash in July 2017, Mark’s body was taken to Newcastle for a specialist post-mortem examination.

It was two weeks before his remains were returned to Gundagai and a funeral could be held.

It was during that fortnight that Mrs Jones decided she did not want another family to feel the pain hers did.

She then began calling for change; for a reduction in the waiting time for families whose loved ones needed coronial autopsies.

“I said I didn’t want others to go through what we did, and now all the hard work is starting to pay off. People are talking about the delays affecting country people and saying how unacceptable these are,” she said.

In NSW, anyone who’s death is unexpected and not due to natural causes must undergo a coronial autopsy. Changes to the way these examinations are conducted mean medical officers at regional hospitals are no longer allowed to do them. Instead, all bodies are taken by government contractors to a NSW Health Pathology facility in Newcastle.

Mrs Jones said she had heard from other families who, having experienced similar waits, have been in touch with her and shared their experiences.

One person who has publicly joined Mrs Jones’s push for change is Gloria Schultz. 

Mrs Schultz, who lives in Cootamundra, lost her son Dean two years ago and had to wait for an autopsy.

It was two weeks before his body was returned to his family for burial.

Both Mrs Jones and Mrs Schultz have highlighted the delays in even having their sons’ bodies taken from local mortuaries to Newcastle, as this was dependent on the availability of a government contractor.

Joe McGirr, the Member for Wagga and a former medical administrator, raised the issue of these delays in State Parliament last week and said that since his speech, he has been contacted by two families who had previously not spoken to him about the issue.

He is now asking for more people to come forward and tell him about their experiences.

Last month, Paul Green, who is Christian Democratic Party upper house MP, raised the issue in state parliament, calling for the Health Minsiyer to explain why Wagga’s “expensive state-of-the-art morgue” was sitting “idle”, adding to the trauma of grief-stricken Riverina families.