Miss Low was in her early 20s when she, along with 37 other female patients, was killed when a fire swept through Ward 5 of the Seacliff Mental Hospital near Dunedin in 1942.
Her family has been battling with the Southern District Health Board for five years in a bid to get access to Miss Low’s records.
Earlier this month, her niece, Di Buchan, finally received the long-awaited file.
"It was such an emotional moment," she said.
Ms Buchan’s Dunedin-based sister was visiting her in Wellington at the time, so they were able to read the file together.
Ms Buchan had wanted access to her aunt’s records to learn more about her family health history, and to include information about her in a book she wrote about her family.
For decades the family had believed Miss Low’s parents had her admitted to Seacliff unnecessarily.
But the records showed Miss Low was a very troubled young woman.
From her early teens she refused to leave her Balclutha home, fearing the outside world.
Ms Buchan said she believed her aunt showed signs of schizophrenia.
"She went into a serious decline — there’s no doubt.
"When you read the record of how she was behaving at that time, I can understand she must have been incredibly difficult to manage and they did need to put her in Ward 5."
The release of the file had allowed the family to see Miss Low as a real person, rather than just a photo on the wall, Ms Buchan said.
"It’s given her a presence that she never had before."
A doctor’s certificate outlining the need for historical health information had helped bring the matter to a head, she said.
Other families were also trying to access records, and she was planning to get in touch with them to let them know she had managed to get her aunt’s.
Health board chief executive Chris Fleming said the issue of whether to, and how to, release the clinical records of former patients who might be deceased and therefore unable to express their wishes was one the board took very seriously.
Patients’ personal health information was guarded "very carefully and sensitively", balancing relevant principles in the Privacy Act, the health information privacy code and the Official Information Act, he said.
