Chemotherapy bungle victim Andrew Knox told on his birthday that his acute myeloid leukaemia has returned

CHEMOTHERAPY bungle victim Andrew Knox has been told on his birthday that his cancer has returned.

Andrew Knows, who has acute myeloid leukaemia, was one of 10 patients who were given incorrect chemotherapy doses at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre over six months from 2014.

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CHEMOTHERAPY bungle victim Andrew Knox has been told on his birthday that his cancer has returned.

Mr Knox, who has acute myeloid leukaemia, was one of 10 patients who were given incorrect chemotherapy doses at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre over six months from 2014.

He was given the devastating news on Tuesday – the day he turned 68 – that he had relapsed and his AML has returned.

This now means all of the known victims of the underdosing scandal have now relapsed or died.

Christopher McRae, 67, and Johanna Pinxteren, 76, both died in 2015 while Bronte Higham, 67, passed away in August this year.

The State Coroner is investigating their deaths.

Mr Knox told The Advertiser the prognosis was “crushing” but still managed to crack a joke.

“It’s a bit of a bugger because I had a haircut (on Monday) – By Christmas time, I won’t need it,” he said.

However, on a serious note, Mr Knox, who has been bravely campaigning for justice for the victims, said he was crushed that he would not be able to appear for the families at the Coronial inquest into the scandal early next year.

“That is a blow because that is something I needed to do for myself and others and the public in general,” he said.

“There are questions I would like to have asked.”

Instead, Mr Knox, of Belair, will be undergoing intense chemotherapy at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for the next three to four months.

He begins his first round on Wednesday.

He said he would keep up the fight for justice as long as he could and hoped the State Government would “face up to the fact that the system is broken”.

The dosing error, which was the result of a “typo” in a protocol for treatment at the hospital, triggered an inquiry that uncovered significant problems in governance, particularly at the RAH, and a failure to disclose the error once it was discovered.

“There’s clearly more yet to come out,” Mr Knox said.

“We simply don’t know what we don’t know.

“The minister and the premier still can’t make the admission or acceptance of how bad it was.”

Health Minister Jack Snelling said: “My thoughts and best wishes are with Mr Knox and his family at this difficult time”.

“We hope for a good outcome.”

Meanwhile, Vickie Kaminski has been appointed the permanent chief executive of SA Health after acting in the role since September.

She replaced David Swan who quit in June.

Mr Snelling said it was a “well-deserved appointment”.

“She has over 35 years of experience within the health system and prior to joining SA Health was President and CEO of the Alberta Health Service in Canada, which employs more than 100,000 staff,” he said.

“She has overseen the development of plans for large-scale transformation processes across the full spectrum of services in the Alberta Health Service and implemented changes which resulted in significant and effective reform.

“As Interim Chief Executive, Vickie has overseen strategic planning for the nRAH project as well as the construction of facilities at other hospitals, the implementation of EPAS, planning progress on new models of care for several priority areas of clinical care, and the continued rollout of Transforming Health.”