Inquest told Ex-Socceroo Stephen Herczeg died amid lack of communication at Queen Elizabeth Hospital
FORMER Socceroo Stephen Herczeg died amid a “lack of communication’’ between Queen Elizabeth Hospital medical staff, an intensive care expert has told an inquest.
FORMER Socceroo Stephen Herczeg died amid a “lack of communication’’ between Queen Elizabeth Hospital medical staff, an intensive care expert has told an inquest.
Royal Melbourne Hospital Professor Jack Cade on Tuesday said medical notes kept on Mr Herczeg, 72, in the hours before he died were sometimes incomplete, which caused confusion among staff.
Mr Herczeg died on September 19 last year from respiratory failure caused by a ruptured bladder and collapsed lungs.
The Coroner’s Court had earlier heard Mr Herczeg, who was South Australia’s first World Cup-qualifying Socceroo in the mid-1960s, died in agony after his bladder and lungs filled with oxygen when mistakenly attached to a catheter tube meant to drain urine.
QEH staff have previously admitted to a series of mistakes in Mr Herczeg’s care and in recording key medical observations on the new electronic Enterprise Patient Administration System.
“I think there’s been a very disappointing lack of communication,’’ Prof Cade told State Coroner Mark Johns, who is holding the inquest into Mr Herczeg’s death.
“This isn’t just ward staff, it’s even emergency department staff ...”
Outside court, Mr Herczeg’s emotional son, Chris, said that authorities should not use new systems unless they were trialled and proven efficient.
“It’s just a big shambles, really,” he said.
“If you’re going to introduce a new system into a hospital you better make sure it’s working damn properly before you go putting people’s lives at risk.
“I think the medical staff have made a consistent number of blunders that’s led to a tragic death that you wouldn’t wish upon your worse enemy.
“It’s my father — they blew him up from the inside out. It seems like the hospital’s standard procedure hasn’t been followed.”
Prof Cade said that doctors and nurses had difficulty with the QEH’s recording system, which had not provided patient information in a timely manner.
“The nursing staff in their subsequent progress notes, their retrospective notes, were very late and I’m not sure if that was partly because of the difficulty with the EPAS system,’’ he said.
Notes relating to Mr Herczeg’s previous admission to QEH, in August, recorded that he then repeatedly pulled at his catheter and oxygen tubes, attempting to remove them.
That information should have prompted medical staff to maintain “the closest level of supervision” when Mr Herczeg was readmitted, Prof Cade said.
But once he was moved from the emergency ward, Mr Herczeg was subject to medical observations every four hours.
“In this particular circumstance, it’s a bit limited,’’ Prof Cade said.
Earlier, Melissa Warren-Smith, a student nurse at the QEH in September, said she had not entered information on Mr Herczeg to the EPAS under another nurse’s name, which contradicted evidence previously given by Waitmatai Fiorentino.
Coroner Mark Johns has recalled registered nurses James Hunt and Ms Fiorentino to give evidence from 10am on Wednesday.