Death rocks family

A devastated father of a one-year-old is considering what measures to take after his wife committed suicide yesterday.

Pau Kolio was pronounced dead two hours after she reached the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital, alive and breathing normally.

Hours before, she attempted to take her life in their little shack located on a cliff at Luatuanu’u.

The couple lived by themselves with their only child.

Widower, Kolio Autu claims he and his wife had argued over “a very little family incident” prior to the suicide attempt. While he went out to surf, she attempted to take her life.

Their daughter wailed and watched as her mother tried to take her own life.

Something alerted him and he rushed back to their home.

She was not breathing when he got there.

“I did CPR [Cardiopulmonary resuscitation] and she came to and so we rushed her to hospital,” said Mr Autu.

He claims that this brought her back and he knew this because she was breathing again.

Something else happened when they arrived at the hospital.

“For two hours she was breathing and her heart rhythm was returning to normal then she died - I keep questioning what happened and this is the big question in
my mind.

“She was attended to by three medical professionals before her death but I was there all the time.”

Mr. Autu claims that when they first arrived, a doctor approached and put an IV [Intravenous]. Thirty minutes later, another doctor checked up on her then later on, a third medical professional attended to Mrs. Autu.

“He was the one I questioned why she was dead when she was breathing fine and her heart beat was returning to normal.

“This is why I’m thinking about what to do about that because I know if the third doctor had attended to her first, this would not have happened, she would be alive today,” he believes.

Whether she died because of complications from her suicide attempt or because something was amiss during treatment by medical professionals is the question that Mr. Autu wants answers to.

Mr. Autu however has another problem - how to raise his one-year old daughter after his wife’s death.

“It was a little thing that caused her death- strong minded woman to have done it,” he said of his wife.

“I was shocked and just couldn’t believe it- she’s left me and our one-year old daughter alone and I think this is the most difficult thing for me right now.”

Every time he looks at his daughter ‘she’s a princess’.

“I work hard for my little family giving surf tours to clients coming from Australia, Hawaii and the US,” he said.

Mrs. Autu was a school teacher at Salelesi.

“I try to raise a happy family and now the most difficult thing for me is our daughter, and to talk personally about what happened that day between us, is a
hard thing for me.

“I have no doubt that this is how you would feel if it was you,” he said.

However said “she has left us alone – she is only a year old and is now being bottle fed because her mother has done this”.

He is even more disappointed that with his wife gone their “huge Christmas plans will now not go ahead.”

The couple had planned to go overseas on a family holiday.

Mr. Autu is urging others in the community that are contemplating suicide to reconsider and if they are parents “think of the children that you will be leaving behind that need you.”

For people who are feeling depressed and contemplating suicide, they are encouraged to call Fa’ataua le Ola’s tollfree Lifeline on 0800-LIFE or 0800-5433.
Choose life.