Coward punch victim Dave Harcus died one month after sent home from hospital with Panadeine Forte. His loved- ones want answers
The loved ones of a 'charismatic, hilarious' Cooper Pedy man believe systematic failures led to his death.
Dave Harcus died one month after he was coward punched at a land auction in remote SA, and sent home from the hospital with no more than a packet of Panadeine Forte.
The blow from behind knocked the 54-year-old NDIS-recipient to the ground, where he smacked his head on the concrete.
He had been walking out of the auction with his friend of nearly four decades, Karen Harvey, 62 — who said they left as soon as they realised they were out of the running.
Everyone else remained inside as the auction proceedings wrapped up on February 4.
Everyone except an old acquaintance with a years-old gripe with Harcus.
Severe rheumatoid arthritis meant Harcus was shuffling slowly along the pavement when he was approached from behind.
'It happened so fast, he just came up behind him, punched him in the back of the head, and Dave just fell straight to the ground — didn't even try to put his hands down or anything because he didn't know it was coming,' Harvey told 7NEWS.com.au.
Back in the car, Harcus slumped forward in his seat — he was bleeding from the ear, had cloudy eyes, and was visibly in shock.
Harvey said she would take him to the hospital, but Harcus insisted on heading home, where he would file a police report 'in case I die in my sleep'.
'I wasn't going to argue. You can't argue with Dave, I've known him for a long time,' Harvey said.
She got a call from Harcus the next day — he was ready to go to the hospital.
Harvey dropped him there and recounted the alleged assault to hospital staff, leaving with the assumption that Harcus would be kept overnight for tests, or flown down to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
But she said there were no CT scans, or referrals, just a packet of Panadeine Forte.
Days later, Harvey drove him back to the hospital and, once again, Harcus left with only a script for Panadeine Forte.
After that, Harcus declined Harvey's further suggestions that he go to the hospital, as his condition deteriorated.
His speech had begun to slur when he told her: 'They'll just send me home with more Panadeine Forte.'
Harcus did ask if Harvey could book him an appointment with a doctor, instead.
The soonest they could fit him in was March 4, the day before he died.
Harvey found her friend sweating, shaking and without any control of his bowels when she arrived that day to take him to the doctor.
He was bedridden, unable to eat, drink, medicate, or take himself to the bathroom.
Harvey said her friend had been alone in this state for days.
'It was heart-wrenching,' Harvey said.
She called him an ambulance and told Harcus she would visit him in the hospital the next day, to drop off a policy number for the ambulance cover she would arrange for him in the meantime.
But when she arrived at the hospital the next day, a nurse pulled Harvey into a kitchenette and told her: 'I'm really sorry, but your friend Dave passed away in the early hours of this morning.'
'Well, I nearly collapsed,' Harvey said.
'My heart started racing — it was horrible. They made me a cup of tea.'
Tracking down the truth
Harcus' niece and listed next of kin, Monika Addicott, only learned her uncle had been unwell when she received a call from the hospital three hours after he had died.
The 43-year-old said she asked the doctor to give her all the details, but was not told about 'any kind of treatment or examination in the 12 or 13 hours that he was there'.
'They just basically said that he was very calm and very peaceful, and just kind of drifted off into sleep.'
Addicott did not learn about the coward punch until she called a Cooper Pedy pub — she was trying to track down anyone who knew her uncle.
'That's when I was told about what happened (at the land auction),' Addicott said.
Addicott remembers Harcus fondly, and recalled the time he insisted she come over and stay with him in Coober Pedy in her early 20s, so that he could teach her the value of money and hard work.
'It certainly re-educated me. It gave me my values and an appreciation of what I've got,' Addicott said.
At the time of his death, Addicott was living in public housing in Brisbane, where Tropical Cyclone Alfred was ripping through the region.
She had to wait until the storm blew over before she could travel to her uncle's home and begin to sort out his affairs.
Time slipped by upon her arrival, as she enrolled her child into a Cooper Pedy school, liaised with the coroner, cleaned through Harcus' home, and began to arrange a funeral which she can't afford until she fundraises $9000.
'Evidently, I've exceeded my absentee quota (for public housing), so they've evicted me,' Addicott said.
Her friends are currently boxing up her belongings in her absence, and putting them into a storage unit.
With so much already on her plate, Addicott said that she would have to cross that bridge when she gets to it.
Pushing for further investigation
SA Police confirmed to 7NEWS.com.au that it is satisfied the alleged assault is not connected to Harcus' death — his loved ones were told he died of a heart attack as a result of a sepsis and pneumonia.
It's a diagnosis that still doesn't sit right with Addicott, or Harvey, who watched her friend rapidly deteriorate seemingly from the moment he was hit.
She believes gaps in clinical care may have contributed to a causal chain of events that led to her friend's death.
Having been twice-prescribed just Panadeine Forte following the assault, Harcus did not believe treatment beyond pain relief was available to him, and died unaware of the severity of his condition, Harvey said.
Given Harcus' recent medical history, Harvey believes that if a CT scan ruled out head trauma as a source of his symptoms, then he should have received further holistic assessment to rule out any complications before it was too late.
'For nearly a year, Dave had an infection in his stomach, and he was going to the hospital every second day to get the wound cleaned,' Harvey said.
'Then he went to Adelaide and had an operation and fixed it all up. This was just before everything else went down.'
Harvey and Addicott have since pushed for a further investigation into the death, and the SA Coroner's Office told 7NEWS.com.au: 'The coronial investigation into this death is ongoing.'
Because of this ongoing investigation, the hospital was also able to comment on the claims made by Harvey, when contacted by 7NEWS.com.au.
'Our condolences go to the friends and family of Mr Harcus for their loss,' Eyre and Far North Local Health Network chief executive officer Julie Marron told 7NEWS.com.au.
Following Harcus' death, Harvey followed up with police on their progress in pressing assault charges.
She claims it was only then that police 'caught up' with a suspect.
A man has been charged with assault and faced Coober Pedy Magistrates Court May, after receiving a summons. The matter was adjourned until late July.
'Everybody was just drawn to him'
Addicott described her uncle as an enigma, and recalled the excitement she felt when he would rock up on her doorstep after a prolonged period out of touch.
This is exactly how he arrived on her wedding day.
'All throughout my life, that's exactly how he was. You wouldn't hear from him, and then he'd just somehow find ya, and just say, 'G'day!',' she said, adding that he surprised her in this way on her wedding day.
Harcus was just 11 years older than Addicott, who said he was 'more like a big brother than an uncle'.
He lived with his pet chihuahua, Nigella, a continuation of the tradition — his parents also lived with chihuahuas. Addicott has now adopted Nigella.
'Uncle was the most charismatic, funny, smart man that you could ever possibly come across,' Addicott said.
'Everybody was just drawn to him. He was just always coming up with some crazy idea ... some new way to do things.'
Harvey described her late friend as a 'proud, honourable' person and 'a very loyal friend'.
'He was just a good person, he had a very good heart.
'Just an example — my mother died in 2005, and I couldn't get all the funds together — Centrelink wouldn't help, and Mum didn't have any money or a will — and (Harcus) lent me the money to have her cremated. That's the kind of person he was.
'I went to pay him back when I had the money, and he wouldn't take it back.'
Harcus had spoken about arranging his own will not long before he died, but never got around to it.
Now, Addicott is struggling to pull together her own funds in order to lay Harcus to rest.
'I legitimately have zero way to pay for this ... meanwhile, Uncle lays there, waiting for me to do something ... and all I can do is cry, because I JUST. CAN'T. AFFORD. IT,' the GoFundMe said.
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