Baby Dies After Being Turned Away From Two Perth Hospitals

A baby boy, whose parents believed he had meningococcal, has died after being sent home from two hospitals in Perth. 

Mum, Nicole Thompson said she first took her seven-month-old son, Malakai Matui Paraone to Midland Hospital last Monday night due to fever, rash and no movement on the right side of his body.

She said she was told that her baby was just teething and had a pulled elbow. She added that she was even laughed at when she suggested the symptoms might be connected.

The following day, Malakai’s heart rate went up and he was vomiting, so he was rushed by ambulance to Princess Margaret Hospital where Ms Thompson claimed her son was assessed on a change table because there was no bed available.

Ms Thompson said that her baby was given Paracetamol and Ibuprofen to lower his heart rate and was sent home with the same diagnosis as Monday.

Last Wednesday, Ms Thompson took her baby to a doctor in Rockingham, at the other end of Perth, where she was told he had a virus but ‘nothing could be done’. That night, Malakai was again rushed back to PMH and after a few hours, he was turning purple and was placed in intensive care.

Ms Thompson said she was told her son had meningococcal and she and her partner, Keps Paraone, along with their older son, were given antibiotics as a precaution. However, she said that when they told doctors they had been turned away days earlier, the diagnosis was changed to blood poisoning from a throat infection.

The next day, the family decided to turn off Malakai’s life support and he died on Friday.

Now, Ms Thompson puts the blame on the hospitals. She told Nine News: “Three days I tried to get him help. Three days, two hospitals, one doctor’s surgery, an ambulance trip…If they had done their job properly my son would still be here. They know they have done wrong,” she said.

Ms Thompson told The West Australian that she still believed her baby had meningococcal.

“Not one medical staff member over the three days I took him in thought they should keep my seven-month-old in for observation. If I was taken seriously by medical staff within the first three hospital visits my baby would be here now…

“I have to say goodbye to him this week. I never ever want another child or parent to go through what I have in this last week,” she said.

Both Midland Hospital and PMH said they ‘could not comment on individual cases’ and Malakai’s death would be referred to the coroner.

Sources: Dailymail.co.uk and Au.news.yahoo.com