A disability support provider has been fined $1.8 million after admitting serious shortfalls in staff training that led to a vulnerable Indigenous woman dying from burns after being given a bath. Kyah Lucas suffered burns to 35 to 40 per cent of her body when she was bathed at her home in Orange, in central-west NSW, by two workers from NDIS provider LiveBetter on February 2 in 2022. The 28-year-old died in a Sydney hospital five days later.
Lucas was non-verbal with thin skin, conditions that left her vulnerable to high temperatures as she was unable to communicate pain. One of her carers ran a bath at her family’s home and checked the water with her hand, believing it was “fine”, according to an agreed statement of facts. The support workers realised the bath was too hot when Lucas began to move and vocalise in an unusual way.