Omid Masoumali died in April 2016 after it took 31 hours for him to be treated at a specialist burns unit

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The partner of Omid Masoumali, the Iranian refugee who set himself on fire on Nauru, is suing the Australian government for negligence and failing to provide adequate medical care for her husband.

Masoumali died in April 2016 after it took 31 hours for him to be treated at a specialist burns unit.

The 23-year-old had been found to be a genuine refugee, and had been detained on Nauru for nearly three years when he set himself alight during a visit by United Nations officials.

He was not given painkillers, and remained on Nauru for more than 24 hours before being airlifted to a Brisbane hospital, where he died of organ failure.

Burned refugee would have had 95% chance of survival in Australia, inquest hears Read more

In February, an inquest heard that Masoumali would have a 95% chance of surviving if he had been evacuated sooner and treated in Australia.

His widow is now suing the Australian government, and the company that provided medical services to refugees on Nauru, for failing their duty of care to her husband and herself.

Her lawsuit, filed in the Victorian supreme court, alleges that the medical company (International Health and Medical Services) had a specialist clinic on the island that could stabilise emergency patients, but never transferred Masoumali into it.

“At all material times, the second defendant operated a clinic located in the Nauru refugee processing centre (RPC1) with the capability to provide emergency response and resuscitation services and to stabilise and hold patients for up to 20 hours prior to medical evacuation,” it says. “At no point was he transferred to or treated at RPC1.”

The lawsuit says the Australian government owed Masoumali a duty of care because it was “responsible for the detention, maintenance and care of asylum seekers” on Nauru, and had also hired IHMS to provide medical and evacuation services.

“At all relevant times the first and second defendants owed a duty of care to the deceased and the plaintiff, [and they] breached the duty of care,” it said.

Masoumali and his partner, who cannot be named for legal reasons, arrived on Christmas Island in 2013 after leaving Iran. They were transferred to Nauru in September 2013, and granted refugee status in December 2014 – but received no further indication of when they could live in Australia.

She told the coronial inquest that Masoumali had been optimistic, “incredibly strong” and “completely healthy” before his indefinite detention on Nauru. She told Guardian Australia in 2017 that: “He was ambitious, intelligent, invincible. But after three years, even Omid was broken.”

“This is how tired we are, this action will prove how exhausted we are”, he reportedly said during his self-immolation.

At the time of his death in 2016, the immigration minister Peter Dutton said “there was was no delay” in Masoumali’s evacuation to Australia.

Nauru denies former president's claim offshore detention deal led to corruption Read more

“The advice that I’ve received is that there was no delay,” he said in April 2016. “Obviously people realise that Nauru is 4,500km or so away from Australia. There’s a long distance involved and there were other medical issues – I’m advised – [which] presented as well, which made the decision difficult about the time to airlift this person.”

In February, a coronial inquiry in Brisbane looked into whether Masoumali’s death could have been avoided.

A doctor who treated him for his burns, Jason Miller, said due to Masoumali’s youth, he would have had a 5%-10% chance of death if he had been treated in a metropolitan Australian hospital. But on Nauru, “I would expect to be lethal 100% of the time”, Miller told the inquiry.

The inquest’s initial evidence hearings ended on 1 March.

The attorney-general’s department said it could not comment on cases before the courts.

The department of home affairs has been contacted for comment.