An inquest into her death began on Monday morning in Gundagai, a small town about 40 kilometres from Tumut, in an airy, old-fashioned courtroom with high ceilings, wooden pews, and poor acoustics.



Williams, a Wiradjuri woman, was born in Tumut, a town of about 6,000 in southwest New South Wales, in April 1988.

The question is not how she died — it was “almost certainly” the sepsis — but what remains in question is the manner of her death, counsel assisting the coroner Lesley Whalan SC told the court.

There is conflicting evidence about how sick Williams was, and how much pain she was in, when she drove to the hospital just after the new year had ticked by.

Whalan outlined the nurses' records from that night: Williams “looked well” and was eating an ice block when she arrived at the hospital shortly after midnight, one nurse recorded. Observations of her vital signs at 12:19am showed an elevated pulse, at 120bpm, but everything else was normal. Williams took some paracetamol, and 15 minutes later, another nurse checked her vital signs. This time, even the pulse was normal. At 12:53am, a nurse recorded that Williams was chatting well with staff and happy to go home and sleep.

These records of Williams’ time at the hospital “suggest a non-urgent presentation for mild symptoms of generalised aches and pain, any abnormality in vital signs lasting no longer than 15 minutes,” Whalan said.

But, she added, there is a “marked contrast” between this and other evidence: Lampe's reports of vomiting, headaches, and breaking out in sweats; and in texts Williams sent to a friend.

“You wouldn’t be able to get me to the hospital, would you? I can barely move,” Williams texted to a friend half an hour before she drove herself to hospital. The friend was out of town and suggested Williams call an ambulance, but she said she couldn’t afford it. “Just my body aching all over, all good I’ll get there. Thanks anyways,” Williams texted back.

When Williams arrived at hospital just after midnight, it was the 18th time she had been there in the past eight months.

It took Whalan an hour and a half to outline Williams’ numerous presentations at the hospital, starting in May 2015, with recurrent symptoms of vomiting, nausea, and abdominal pain. In most cases, she was given anti-nausea medication and fluids, and offered drug and alcohol and mental health counselling.