Husband of RAH chemo bungle victim Johanna ‘Anne’ Pinxteren denies claims a doctor had told them about underdosing error

A CHEMOTHERAPY bungle victim’s husband has vehemently rejected suggestions a doctor told the couple of the deadly mistake before she died from leukaemia.

William Pinxteren leaves the Coroner’s Court in Adelaide on Monday. Picture: Morgan Sette/AAP

• How The Advertiser first broke this tragic story
• Inquest opens with detailed account how the chemo bungle happened
• The fourth victim died during the course of the inquest
• SA Health haematologists stood down after failing to raise the alarm

THE husband of chemotherapy bungle victim Johanna “Anne” Pinxteren has vehemently rejected suggestions that a doctor told them of the deadly mistake before her death from leukaemia.

William Pinxteren on Monday gave evidence at the inquest, telling Deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel that it was not until after the death of his wife in June 2015 that he learned she was among 10 Royal Adelaide Hospital patients who received incorrect doses of chemotherapy.

Johanna “Anne” Pinxteren.

Mr Schapel has spent almost two years investigating the circumstances of the underdosing, which occurred before the deaths of patients Christopher McRae, Bronte Higham, Carol Bairnsfather and Mrs Pinxteren.

When the inquest opened in July 2016, former health minister Jack Snelling told Parliament that suggestions that Mrs Pinxteren had not been told of the bungle were refuted by medical records that showed she had been informed by Dr Devenda Hiwase in March 2015.

However, Mr Pinxteren repeatedly denied that Dr Hiwase had ever made mention of his wife receiving incorrect chemotherapy doses or of any other mistake in her treatment.

Dr Hiwase’s lawyer, Darrell Trim QC, questioned Mr Pinxteren about the conversations he and his wife had with the doctor when it was discovered her leukaemia had relapsed and that chemotherapy would cease.

“I am putting it to you that in fact these (mistakes) were mentioned to you and your wife,” Mr Trim said.

But Mr Pinxteren steadfastly maintained that Dr Hiwase never mentioned a mistake or apologised for the bungle.

“He never apologised about anything ... if he knew there was something wrong he should have apologised, apparently he knew,” Mr Pinxteren said.

Mr Pinxteren said he had initially not planned to give evidence at the inquest but chose to in the hope of stopping similar mistakes from occurring in the future.

“I’m glad it is in the open and I hope that it never happens again ... if everyone had done their job properly there was no need for this to happen,” Mr Pinxteren said.

“It had to be told somehow, that it took so long is another thing, but eventually it’s good that it has come out and that everyone is involved, including the doctors.”

Deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel has for almost two years heard evidence about the chemotherapy bungle from a wide range of witnesses.

Mr Pinxteren described his wife as “the most wonderful person I have ever met”. They raised a family of three children in Adelaide and he moved to Victoria after her death.

“We’ve been married for 56 years. She would never criticise anybody — she’d criticise me — but not everybody else and everybody loved her because she loved everybody,” he said.

“We bought a block of land and we were not even engaged, and I said ‘that is where we are going to build our house’ and that’s what we did.”

Their daughter Wendy backed up her father’s denial that he or anyone in his family was told of the chemo bungle before Mrs Pinxteren’s death.

“We were never even told about the underdosing until about a year after my mother passed away,” she said.

“What I’ve learned has been quite shocking and unacceptable, I don’t know the words to use to describe just how wrong this whole scenario has been.

“Now that it’s all come out in the open I hope that this means there is a change in the culture of the medical profession, where people can question doctors and that they’re not above questioning.”

The inquest will reopen on Wednesday, when a final witness may be recalled ahead of closing submissions, possibly later this week.