What really killed Alana Goldsmith never appeared on her death certificate.

Warning: This article deals with issues surrounding eating disorders and suicide and could be triggering from some readers. 

Update:

A New South Wales coroner has said that more could have been done to check on the mental health of 23-year-old Alana Goldsmith on the day she died – but that the failures were not the ultimate cause of her death.

Alana Goldsmith died at a Sydney railway station on July 22, 2011, after leaving the Wesley Eating Disorders Clinic in Sydney

Coroner Mark Douglass said that staff failed to notice her missing for more than two hours and that doctors were unaware of her previous suicide attempts.

He said the admitting nurse failed to complete a suicide risk assessment and “had not been trained regarding the suicide assessment document”.

But while Mr Douglass said Goldsmith’s treatment was only “adequate not optimal”, he said in findings handed down on Monday that the young woman most likely killed herself as a result of her longtime struggle with anorexia.

“It was likely that she could no longer endure the burden of living with her medical condition anorexia nervosa,” he said, as reported in The Guardian. 

Alana’s family released a statement saying “We look forward to a time when optimal treatment and care is the norm for all Australians suffering with Eating Disorders.”

Previously, Mamamia wrote:

Alana Goldsmith was intelligent, beautiful, and kind, with a family who adored her and a future worth sticking around to see.

When she was nearly 24, she took her own life.

Anorexia killed Alana Goldsmith, but it didn’t appear on her death certificate. There was no mention of ‘suicide’ there either. Instead, it simply read ‘multiple injuries’.

It’s the perfect crime: anorexia kills more people each year than any other mental illness, but it’s never publicly or officially documented.

That’s why Alana’s mother, Judy, and her sister, Simone, demanded an inquest into Alana’s death. They wanted the real cause of their beloved girl’s death to be acknowledged and recorded.

On Tuesday, that’s exactly what happened. A NSW coroner ruled that Alana Goldsmith’s death was caused by suicide while affected by anorexia nervosa.

“My mum really wanted the cause of death to feature anorexia,” Alana’s sister, Simone, tells Mamamia. “To have that happen, to have Alana’s real cause of death formally recognised, is a huge relief for us. It means she didn’t die in vain. It means that they can start collecting the data on how many lives are taken by eating disorders properly. Hopefully now the truth will no longer be overlooked in our national statistics and the appropriate funding and resources can be given for Eating Disorders and Suicide prevention in future.”

Simone is supported by the CEO of The Butterfly Foundation, Christine Morgan, in her fight to get better treatment for eating disorders sufferers. The Butterfly Foundation say that in 2012, as many as 900,000 Australian suffered from eating disorders. 1800 deaths were attributable that year alone to eating disorders but none of those death certificates featured ‘anorexia nervosa’ as the cause of death.

That’s why Alana Goldsmith’s case is a landmark one. It’s a game-changer in the way we think about eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, and therefore the ways we can ask our government to fund research and treatment. There are more findings to come from the coroner next week, with specific recommendations. From there, it’s over to the government, the Butterfly Foundation, and the health professionals who still treat eating disorders as an enigma. The Goldsmiths just gave anyone lobbying for better treatment a much better case to fight with.

Simone Goldsmith knows the potential affect her family’s bravery could have – it’s why they did all this in the first place. “The dire shortage of resources for the epidemic of Eating Disorder patients in NSW and Australia is one of the reasons my family wanted to pursue this matter,” she says. “I’m sharing Alana’ story because I don’t want anyone else to go through the living hell of losing a sister or friend. We’ve got nothing to lose by sharing our story because we’ve already lost her.”

What the Goldsmiths have done through savage, unimaginable grief is nothing short of extraordinary. As Simone tells me, there’s no such thing as closure and the grief is always, always there. But now? The Goldsmiths have helped save other families from losing their daughters and sisters.

If this post brings up any issues for you, please contact The Butterfly Foundation on 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673). If you need someone to talk to, please call Lifeline on 131 114. You can also visit the Lifeline website here and the Beyond Blue website here.