Sick kids need better transport: doctor

21 Feb 2012, 5:35 pm   -   Source: AAP
Share This

An inquest has been told that procedures for transporting sick kids between hospitals are in need of improvement following the death of a preschooler.

The head of a transport network for sick children has acknowledged at an inquest into the death of a preschooler that there are "problems" with people knowing who has responsibility for patients.

Four-year-old Chanel Costa died in Randwick's Sydney Children's Hospital on July 18, 2008 after suffering seizures.

An inquest at Glebe Coroners Court has been told that staff at Nepean Hospital, where the critically ill child was first taken, had lacked the necessary expertise.

However there were delays with the transfer to Sydney Children's Hospital, which was better equipped to treat her.

Dr Andrew Berry, the state director of NETS (Newborn and Paediatric Emergency Transport Service), said Chanel's condition was so severe he had misgivings about transporting her by ambulance.

"An ambulance crew would not have had the skills to deal with the problems Chanel had at the time," he told the inquest.

"I did consider her too sick to use an ambulance at the time."

He also criticised the existing system where hospitals had to contact his office to get permission to use sirens on an ambulance transporting sick children.

"I think teams should have more autonomy," he said.

Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes asked Dr Berry if there had been a problem with people not knowing who had responsibility for a patient, to which he replied: "Yes".

He also agreed better communication and more up-to-date diagnosis was needed when coordinating transport.

Under cross-examination, Dr Thelma Fa'asalele, a paediatric officer with NETS, said she was unsure whether viral encephalitis or meningitis had caused Chanel to suffer from cerebral oedema, a condition in which the brain accumulates excess water.

But she disagreed with a suggestion from police sergeant assisting the coroner, Stephen Kelly, that she had "no idea" what was causing the seizures.

"The seizures were consistent with the diagnosis at the time," Dr Fa'asalele said, in the presence of Chanel's tearful mother Angela and the girl's three sisters Bianca, Amanda and Jessica.

In the days before her death, Chanel's mother and her father Stephen had noticed her jolting in her sleep and running a temperature close to 40 degrees.

After they took her to Nepean Hospital in the early hours of July 15, 2008, attempts had been made to transfer her to the Children's Hospital at Westmead but no intensive care beds were available.

It was another 13 hours before she was finally transferred to Sydney's Children Hospital at Randwick, where she died three days later.

The inquest continues.

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube