A Sydney couple whose toddler died after multiple failures at northern beaches hospital are calling for reform in the emergency healthcare system. Elouise and Danny Massa allege hospital staff failed their son joe "at every level" and believe he would be alive today were it not for the improper care he received.
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00:00My husband and I have decided to speak out now because we've finally had time to process
00:09Jo's death.
00:10We have received all the information at hand, including that critical incident investigation
00:20that was conducted.
00:22And we last week sat down with the Northern Beaches Hospital and had an open disclosure
00:29meeting.
00:31Following that meeting, we walked out and said, I think it's time to raise awareness
00:37about Jo, the systemic failings that are happening at the Northern Beaches Emergency Department
00:45that completely let Jo down.
00:47So that we can create meaningful change and ensure that no other child, no other family
00:55on the Northern Beaches has to go through what we went through.
00:59So as tough as it is, take us back through what happened on the morning of September
01:0414.
01:07So on the morning of September 14, we called triple zero.
01:14We knew that Jo was declining rapidly.
01:17He had had one vomit overnight, nothing since though, just the one.
01:22And I could actually hear his heart rate pounding.
01:25I could feel that he was clammy to touch, that he was white as a ghost, that he was
01:30floppy.
01:31He was going in and out of consciousness, even at that very early stage of 6am when
01:38we called the ambulance.
01:40They told us to make your way to the nearest emergency department, which is the Northern
01:44Beaches Hospital for us.
01:47I got there myself with Jo, Danny was minding our two other children at home.
01:54And the moment that I walked through those doors with Jo, there was no chance for survival
02:01because every plea, every call for help that I made to staff was ignored.
02:11The first mistake of many that happened was when Jo was categorised incorrectly at the
02:19point of triage.
02:21He should have been in the category two red zone.
02:25His heart rate was well into that zone at 7am at 163 beats per minute and he was wrongly
02:38triaged.
02:39A category two zone for your listeners means that it's an imminently life threatening condition.
02:47He should be seen to by senior paediatric staff within 10 minutes and his vital signs
02:53reviewed every 15 minutes, obviously put into a resuscitation bed or a paediatric bed and
02:59monitored and connected to monitoring equipment.
03:04None of that happened.
03:06The most disappointing part for us is that after our open disclosure meeting last week,
03:13we found out that indeed once he entered into that emergency department, got past that point
03:19of triage, that the staff knew he was actually in the red zone, but they chose not to follow
03:26the process and the protocol around that.
03:29Was there any explanation as to why?
03:33Yes, I asked that very question and I was told it comes down to individual performance,
03:40which simply is not good enough.
03:42That goes back to a senior layer of accountability and the question as to why they are having
03:49a long-standing staff member that inadequately cared for Jo and in addition to that, an ED
03:59advanced trainee doctor who was on rotation from St Vincent's Hospital.
04:05It's not just that, there was a senior doctor that started her shift at 8am and she never
04:11saw Jo up until the point of his cardiac arrest at 10.47am, which resulted in irreversible
04:20brain damage.
04:22He was on that table, they were trying to get a heartbeat for 29 minutes.
04:28Now as a parent, I can't tell you how harrowing that is when you feel like your child was
04:34completely let down by a system that's meant to support him.
04:38And how frustrating for you was it over those three hours from 7am to 10am?
04:47I felt that every call, every plea for help was like a door shutting in my face.
04:55There was no chance of Jo to be here today because I was told to sit back down in my
05:03chair with Jo cradled in my arms as he's agitated, going in and out of consciousness, getting
05:09worse every minute.
05:11I pleaded with him, please can he just be put on a drip, he looks very unwell.
05:16And I was told no, that is not part of their process.
05:20And to sit back down, I asked for a bed.
05:23I was told no, there's a protocol with beds, we give them to those that need them.
05:28I asked for a review of Jo repeatedly, I was pacing around the emergency department being
05:35ignored by staff.
05:39That's simply not good enough.
05:40For a state of the art hospital, built in 2018, category 5, that has a paediatric ward
05:50and they claim that they can care for children and babies adequately, I beg to differ because
05:57Jo's not here today.
05:59Not due to one failure, but due to multiple failures of processes, policies and individuals.
06:07And so an investigation has conceded those mistakes were made and the recommendations
06:13have been accepted.
06:15Is that enough?
06:17No.
06:18It's a step in the right direction and I welcome them.
06:22However, a few minor policy tweaks, a review of policies is not good enough.
06:28I want to see words that mean action, implementation.
06:33I want to see that Jo has not died in vain and a bit of paperwork is shuffled around
06:42at the hospital and a box ticked.
06:45Because when I met with the management at Northern Beaches Hospital, to me, it felt
06:51like he was just a number on a piece of paper.
06:55I had to bring a photo in of Jo and introduce him to him, humanise him, a beautiful boy
07:01that loved flowers, that loved running around in his garden and was adored by his brothers
07:06and sisters and who should be here today.
07:09I had to humanise him and take him off a spreadsheet for them.
07:14I not only want and am advocating for more to be done, that includes an independent review
07:25of the emergency department at Northern Beaches Hospital into the malpractice so that no more
07:31children needlessly have to lose their lives there, a full review of its operations.
07:37I'm also asking the state government to put funding into backing an awareness campaign
07:43for the REACH protocol so that it is in every parent's psyche that they know if they ever
07:50have to go to hospital and they feel helpless and unsafe as I did, that they know how to
07:55enact change, they are empowered.
07:59I want a text message to be sent to every single person that walks through an emergency
08:03department in any hospital in New South Wales to be sent the contact details of who they
08:09can call in the hospital if they are feeling unsafe and they wish to escalate their situation.
08:16And on top of that, I'm asking for a review into the public-private partnership that the
08:22Northern Beaches has and the government has with HealthScope because it's very clear that
08:28they're putting profit over the safety of our community.