Tragic tale with many victims
“Doctor too tired for golf ball victim”, “Doctor fears he was too tired at hospital”, “Flaws in care of girl hit by golf ball” – headlines referring to the tragic case of Vanessa Anderson, who died in Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital during a seizure two days after being hit by a golf ball.
With the inquest into the 16 year-old’s death in progress, the accusations have been flying thick and fast. If the newspaper reports are correct the case is another symptom of a system in trouble.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the court has heard that “Vanessa’s CT scan went missing; doctors and nurses failed to keep appropriate notes; a nurse did not tell anyone when Vanessa could not move and suffered memory loss a few hours before her death; and doctors involved in the case failed to tell each other when they changed her drugs”.
Furthermore, a postmortem revealed four times the therapeutic level of codeine in her blood and high levels of Endone, the paper said.
But perhaps the most telling report was a tiny newspaper report which claimed administrators had been warned the neurosurgical ward would be three doctors short at the time of Vanessa’s admission. I’m not sure what options the bureaucrats had to make ensure patient safety, but it sounds as if an unreasonable burden fell to a female intern on her eleventh neurosurgical shift.
She’s had her name and photo in the papers. She’s admitted making mistakes and she’s expressed her sympathy to the parents.
When I googled the case, the top entry made me cry.
It was Vanessa’s death notice:
Vanessa Anderson
Suddenly, late of Hornsby Heights.
Beautiful and cherished daughter of Michelle and Warren, loving sister of Amanda and Nathan. …
11.9.1989 - 8.11.2005 "Ness your legend"
Vanessa was just three days older than my own son, and I imagine her parents’ lives will never be the same.
Life, too, will have changed for those involved in her care.
And without wanting to preempt the coroner’s findings, it seems to me the system is largely made up o good people doing their best in a system that feels increasingly as if it’s going off the rails.
With the inquest into the 16 year-old’s death in progress, the accusations have been flying thick and fast. If the newspaper reports are correct the case is another symptom of a system in trouble.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the court has heard that “Vanessa’s CT scan went missing; doctors and nurses failed to keep appropriate notes; a nurse did not tell anyone when Vanessa could not move and suffered memory loss a few hours before her death; and doctors involved in the case failed to tell each other when they changed her drugs”.
Furthermore, a postmortem revealed four times the therapeutic level of codeine in her blood and high levels of Endone, the paper said.
But perhaps the most telling report was a tiny newspaper report which claimed administrators had been warned the neurosurgical ward would be three doctors short at the time of Vanessa’s admission. I’m not sure what options the bureaucrats had to make ensure patient safety, but it sounds as if an unreasonable burden fell to a female intern on her eleventh neurosurgical shift.
She’s had her name and photo in the papers. She’s admitted making mistakes and she’s expressed her sympathy to the parents.
When I googled the case, the top entry made me cry.
It was Vanessa’s death notice:
Vanessa Anderson
Suddenly, late of Hornsby Heights.
Beautiful and cherished daughter of Michelle and Warren, loving sister of Amanda and Nathan. …
11.9.1989 - 8.11.2005 "Ness your legend"
Vanessa was just three days older than my own son, and I imagine her parents’ lives will never be the same.
Life, too, will have changed for those involved in her care.
And without wanting to preempt the coroner’s findings, it seems to me the system is largely made up o good people doing their best in a system that feels increasingly as if it’s going off the rails.
Labels: hospital
posted by ozdocblog at 12:03 AM
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