An Untimely Death !

 Australia is often called the " lucky country " and its citizens enjoy good health because it maintains a public hospital system across all states and territories.  Citizens with an ailment or an injury are entitled to approach either an out-patient or emergency department and have that treated at no cost to themselves.

This public hospital system is connected by road ambulance fleets and air ambulances which move patients from hospitals in small country towns to regional base hospitals with better facilities, or to the giant medical centres located in capital cities.

This system works well, but it is not perfect and a recent death has it subject to review to ascertain what went wrong, and what can be done to ensure there is no repeat.

An eighteen year old boy named  Alex lived in the far western New South Wales town of Broken Hill and he experienced an in-grown toe nail that had become infected.  He presented at Broken Hill regional hospital and was given a course of anti biotics which quickly healed the infection.

What was missed was that the infection had spread to his knee, and he was experiencing great pain. He presented three times at Broken Hill hospital and each time he was sent away and told to treat the problem with rest and ice.  The pain was so intense that he Googled the question  "  Can you die from pain  ? "

An ambulance was called, only to learn that no ambulance was immediately available to take Alex to Broken Hill hospital.  Her was driven there in the family car and the treating doctor remarked that " he was the sickest person he had seen at Broken Hill ".   He was given a triage rating of  three which means attention by a doctor within a thirty minute time frame. It was intended to fly Alex to Adelaide, but it was quickly learned that no bed was available there.  Perfection is impossible to obtain, but it is important that we live and learn by the mistakes that were made there.

It was then learned that while there was a plane available to take a gravelly ill Alex to a Sydney hospital, the pilot available could not take the trip because the distance would exceed the flying hours he was permitted without adequate rest. Alex and his mother were left to wait at Broken Hill airport while arrangements were made and a suitable aircraft made the journey from Sydney.

Hours later Alex reached his destination, but he died from a bacterial infection known as Group A Streptococca (GAS).   An inquest has since heard that the mandatory investigation of the cause of this death was not carried out by the hospital.  Alex went into cardiac arrest and died soon after arriving at  Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.

It is evident that the seamless transfer of getting patients to where the required level of care is available broke down in this instance.  Perfection is impossible to obtain, but it is important that we learn from the mistakes that are made and the necessary improvements implemented so they do nor recur.