Dismay at hospital negligence

A mother who feared for her son’s life after he was reportedly given 10 times his prescribed dose of insulin at Rockingham General Hospital has called for a change in the law to help victims of negligence in the WA Health Service.

Kirsty Cox’s 14-year-old son Bailey, who has suffered from type 1 diabetes since he was three years old, presented at RGH last month.

The teenager was due to receive his usual five units of insulin during his time in hospital but his family claim he was administered 55 units instead because of human error.

This led to Bailey being rushed to Princess Margaret Hospital’s intensive care unit, with Ms Cox telling theTelegraph she feared for her son’s life.

“There were maybe five or six nurses and doctors standing around; one was hysterical and crying,” she said.

“When the nurse told me Bailey had been administered 55 units I just didn’t know what to say. How does that happen?

“Bailey couldn’t move and he was starting to talk a bit funny. He was asking ‘am I going to die?’

“There was a period where we were in some serious trouble in the ICU because the insulin was working against Bailey’s system.

“They could not flush the two drips through fast enough so they had to cut his arm open and put a pick line in his artery to his heart. I just felt helpless.”

Although Bailey pulled through, Ms Cox said he was still not himself.

“He’s not back at school yet and it has been two weeks since we have been home,” she said.

“His body has just been through such a horrible experience.”

RGH acting executive director Kathleen Smith said patient confidentiality meant she was limited in what she could say.

“The internal review into this incident is continuing and, when completed, we will discuss the outcome and recommendations with the family,” she said.

Ms Cox has since met Katherine Summers, who has started the No Harm Health initiative after she claimed to have been mistreated in hospital.

The pair have endeavoured to work together to try to change the law so people who suffer negligence in the health system are offered more support.

“Patients should be at the centre of care,” Ms Summers said.

“If you make an error as a medical practitioner you should get training and support. If you are a patient that has been harmed, or the family of a patient, you should get support financially, mentally, end of story.”

Ms Summers said taking legal action against the health system was the only choice currently.

“You can go down the legal pathway which is very traumatic and dragged out for years,” she said. “Kirsty is seeing it already. It is time, money, emotion and stress.”

Ms Cox said the knock-on effects included having to hire extra staff in her business.

“It’s all very fresh; I certainly want the people involved to have retraining. They can’t just do that and come back to work the next day,” she said.

“Katherine has hit the nail on the head — I have had to hire more staff because there is no way I am leaving my son’s side. I can’t sleep at night; who fixes that?”

For more information on No Harm Health, go to www.facebook.com/NoHarmHealth.