An alleged murderer who collapsed before court was hospitalised due to stress, not because of her chronic illness, a court has heard.
On Friday, Raelene Polymiadis appeared via audio visual link to the South Australian District Court – the same court she was wheeled out of, chained to a stretcher two days earlier.
The 62-year-old diabetic woman has been charged with two counts of murder over the deaths of her parents Brenda and Lynton Anderson, both 94, in 2022 and 2023.
The court has previously been told she allegedly used her own supply of insulin to commit the crimes.
In a dramatic scene on Wednesday, Ms Polymiadis collapsed in the court cells while waiting for ambulance crews to arrive, just as her bail hearing was due to commence.
The court then heard she had suffered a “code black” medical emergency while in the court cells before her hearing, with a cell mate calling out for help.
At 3.36pm, an hour after triple-zero was dialled, paramedics arrived and transferred her to the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
However, on Friday, prosecutor Karen Ingleton said the hospital notes hadn’t found Ms Polymiadis to be suffering as a result of her diabetes.
“The release notes from the hospital suggest there was no concern identified at that time in relation to either her blood sugar or her blood pressure,” Ms Ingleton said.
“The episode that happened in court this week seems to have been stress-related.”
Ms Polymiadis claims her illness is being mismanaged while in custody, and has asked the court to grant her home detention bail so she can manage her diabetes “successfully,” as she has done for the past “forty years.”
Her lawyer Marie Shaw KC told the court her client would be in the hands of people who weren’t equipped to manage her illness if not granted bail.
“She will potentially – for the next two years, day in and day out, without the scrutiny of a Supreme Court justice – be at the mercy of prison health services whose management has been described as inept,” Ms Shaw said.
“When she returned from hospital, she requested to split her insulin and was refused. When she requested to speak to a doctor about it, she was told there was no doctor available that day.”
Justice Julie McIntyre adjourned the court until next month to hear final submissions, but commented on the unusual length of the bail review hearing.
“We do need to bring this to finality,” she said.
“We are at risk of setting a record for this type of matter.”