A woman whose epiletic son died two weeks after a drug change says the findings of a coronial inquest has not given her closure.
Jo Oliver's son Will, 26, died in August, 2019, after having a seizure in the back of his car. He had been taking the drug Logem for two weeks.
Pharmac switched to Logem after it stopped funding Lamotrigine, which is used to treat epilepsy and mental health conditions.
Pharmac's decision was opposed by Epilepsy NZ and Medsafe also warned against the decision, which offered Pharmac savings of $30 million.
A coronial inquest was launched to see if Will's death and that of five others was caused, or contributed to, by the drug change.
In findings, released yesterday, Chief Coroner Judge Deborah Marshall was unable to confirm if the change had caused their deaths. However, she could not rule it out as a background factor for two of them.
Oliver told 1 NEWS she had been hoping a definite answer would come out of the inquest.
"I wanted a definite answer to give closure, complete closure."
She described the two years since Will's death and the inquest as an "ordeal".
"Us as families have been put through it. Two years of this and there's no ruling. I feel it's a waste of time but I've done it for Will. He's pushed me."
Oliver said she now had no trust in the health system and was concerned there would be no change because Marshall had not made any recommendations.
She still questioned why Pharmac had switched the drugs in the first place. "If you're doing OK, why change the medicine?"
"I would like some of them to actually go through some of what our six families have been through and then decide 'hey, this is actually not working'."
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