Gone too soon ... little Elijah Slavkovic. Source: The Daily Telegraph
A THREE-month-old baby who contracted bacterial meningitis and later died should have received antibiotics much earlier, a Sydney inquest heard.
Elijah Slavkovic was admitted to Pambula Hospital, on the NSW south coast, on April 24, 2009 after his parents noticed he was feeling unwell.
It was the beginning of an ordeal in which he was transferred first to Bega Hospital then to hospitals in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne, where he succumbed to his illness six weeks later.Kenneth Maclean, a paediatrician and geneticist, told Parramatta Coroners Court he agreed with the decision to transfer Elijah, but antibiotics should have been administered at Pambula.
"There was a small window where antibiotics could and should have been administered, but even then that is no guarantee of success," Dr Maclean told the inquest yesterday.
He said the decision to transfer Elijah to Bega from Pambula created a delay in the management of his condition, which had then not yet been diagnosed.
"It creates a delay and in this instance it was not a transfer from a hospital to a specialist paediatrician. I consider it to be a transfer between two emergency departments."
Dr Maclean said, in his view, it was imperative a paediatrician be consulted at the earliest opportunity when a sick child presented with symptoms of sepsis.
He also said there was a reluctance among hospital staff to call for help.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét