A woman who drowned in a popular swimming spot while visiting Tasmania in the summer of 2022 “most likely” suffered a medical event, according to a Coroner.
Emily Catherine Stein, 22, died in January 2022 after she disappeared around 15 minutes after entering the water alongside her father and brother in Launceston’s Cataract Gorge First Basin.
Coroner Simon Cooper said Stein had previously experienced seizures in the years leading up to the incident and was diagnosed with epilepsy in May 2021.
An “extensive” search, which included shutting off the water flow upstream, deploying the rescue helicopter, police dive squad, lifeguards, kayakers and SES crews, was carried out across two days until her body was located in 5.2m of water the next day, still wearing goggles.
An autopsy showed Stein did not have any alcohol or illicit drugs in her system at the time, only prescribed antidepressant and anti-epilepsy medication.
The Coroner’s medical advisor believed her epilepsy was “unstable at the time of her death” and it was likely that she drowned because of an epileptic seizure, a conclusion the Coroner found “logical”.
Coroner Cooper said he was “satisfied … that the cause of her death was drowning, and that is most likely that she suffered an epileptic seizure which caused her to drown”.
He recommended that people suffering from epilepsy “should at least discuss with their general practitioner whether it is safe for them to swim”.
“There is a significant body of research which confirms that people with epilepsy drown at a rate nearly 10 times greater than the general population (although the majority of such drownings do occur in a bath tub),” Cooper said.
“Nonetheless, it is beyond question that epilepsy significantly enhances the risk of drowning.”
