EXCLUSIVE
A mother who drowned with two of her children in a Sydney river was struggling so badly with her mental health that she sent her one-year-old son to live with her parents in Vietnam.
Hoai Doan, 32, died with her eldest children Mitchell and Hazel, age seven and five, on Saturday morning when they got caught in a strong current at George’s River, near Shearer Park in Lansvale.
Bystanders tried in vain to rescue the family by jumping into the river and in boats, but the bodies were recovered from the water by emergency services several hours later.
Police are investigating how the family ended up in the water, with murder-suicide flagged as one possibility. Daily Mail Australia revealed how the troubled mum had struggled with bipolar disorder.
The children’s father, Dinh Nguyen, confirmed his wife took medication for her condition, but it wasn’t always effective.
Now, her friend Anh Ha has told Daily Mail Australia about the true nature of Ms Doan’s mental health battle – including suicide ideation, and desperate attempts to get it under control.
Ms Ha explained their families would often go fishing and spent time together at the very spot where they drowned.
Anh Ha is pictured, left, with Hoai Doan during a day out at George’s River in Lansvale. On Saturday, Ms Doan and two of her kids died at the very same spot
Hoai Doan is pictured with her son, Mitchell, left, and a friend – fishing off the wharf at George’s River
Hoai Doan, pictured in pink, and two of her kids Mitchell and Hazel died at the wharf on Saturday
She said their final conversation was last Thursday, two days before the tragedy, when Ms Doan said she was worried about her health and finances.
‘I wanted to give her a call to check how she was doing, because she was taking mental health treatments,’ she said.
‘She was in and out of hospital, so I wanted to talk to her and ask if she was OK.
‘She said “I’m so worried” because she didn’t know how she would earn money and she was worried about her kids’ future.’
Ms Doan’s youngest son, Macario, has temporarily been living with his grandparents in Vietnam because raising three children on a single income, combined with her bipolar, had been too difficult for the family.
Despite Ms Doan’s clear concerns about her future, Ms Ha – who is a massage therapist – thought she seemed grounded and rational during that conversation, and wanted to try to help her.
‘I said I could teach her how to do massage and I could book clients for her, and she was very excited and looking forward to it, but I told her to wait until I came back from Thailand,’ she explained.
‘I said I’ll do it at no cost and her husband was supportive.’
She had no reason to think Ms Doan’s situation was urgent, so she decided to spend her last days in Sydney with her own young children before her eight-day trip to Thailand.
Pictured: Floral tributes left at the scene where Ms Doan and her kids died on Saturday
The family were part of the local Vietnamese community in Sydney’s south-west
Vietnamese woman Hoai, 32, and her two children Mitchell and Hazel Nguyen, aged seven and five, (pictured) drowned in the Georges River on Saturday
On Saturday, Ms Ha was out with her children when a friend phoned her to tell her about the tragedy.
Despite the speculation over whether the situation was a murder-suicide, Ms Ha maintained that her friend would never intentionally hurt her children – if she was in her right mind.
She didn’t think the children were able to swim and wasn’t sure why they would have been in the water.
‘She was a lovely person, very caring, she loved her kids a lot and she wanted to give them the best care, but I also think she can’t control herself,’ she said.
‘People with mental health conditions can’t control themselves, but in her heart, she didn’t want this to happen either.’
Ms Doan did everything she could to stay healthy – she wouldn’t eat fast food, she was enthusiastic about healthy eating and nutrients, and she had dreams of becoming a motivational speaker.
During mental health episodes, Ms Ha said her friend would talk ‘a lot’ about how she didn’t want to live.
‘People with mental health problems need a lot of love and understanding,’ she said.
Hoai Doan is pictured with a copy of Anthony William’s book in November 2022, which she came across on her fourth hospital admission
Police are reportedly investigating whether the tragedy was a murder-suicide. Pictured are Mitchell and Hazel with their mother’s supplements
Emergency services rushed to the boat ramp on Shearer Park off Hollywood Drive, Lansvale, on Saturday
‘It’s not about tell them what to do – I heard a lot of people telling her she was being negative and telling her how to be, but they don’t need that – they need understanding.’
Ms Doan ran a discount variety store for about a year, but it closed in 2022.
Daily Mail Australia previously revealed a number of social media posts Ms Doan posted that same year, detailing her interest in holistic healing following a number of hospitalisations.
Her efforts to fix her mental health issues appeared to be largely based on a book called Brain Saver by a self-described ‘medical medium’, Anthony William.
In one post, a relative told her not to give up, to which she replied: ‘God doesn’t let me die easily.’
William, who does not appear to have a medical degree, maintains his medical expertise was given to him by a spirit at the age of four and his connection with that entity allows him to cure illnesses – ranging from mild to severe.
The book promises to provide readers with ‘answers to brain inflammation, mental health, OCD, brain fog, neurological symptoms, addiction, anxiety, heavy metals, seizures, Lyme[‘s disease], ADHD, Alzheimers, autoimmune and eating disorders’.
Ms Doan’s posts, written in Vietnamese and translated to English, revolve around her hospitalisations, and how she started consuming ‘heavy metal detox smoothies’ and drinking honey lemonade to aid her condition.
In 2022, she wrote about a moment that she ‘lost control on the street and was taken away by an ambulance’, only to be released the following morning.
