By Christine Ahern and Natalie Clancy
Brighton Grammar student James Tsindos was a talented pianist, but since he died four years ago, the piano in his family home has not been touched.
It’s a reminder to the 17-year-old’s parents that their son should still be with them.
James Tsindos’ family (left to right) sisters Elpida (in black), Kristina, and Georgia (in white), mother Venetia (holding a picture of James) and father Harry Tsindos. Their 17-year-old son, James, died in 2021 after going to Holmesglen Private Hospital.Credit: Joe Armao
“I’m waiting for him to come home,” his mother Venetia Tsindos said.
The schoolboy died in May 2021 after being taken by ambulance to the emergency department of Holmesglen Private Hospital in Moorabbin, in Melbourne’s south-east, suffering from anaphylaxis after inadvertently eating a sauce made of cashews, to which he was allergic.
His family are speaking out for the first time as part of a special report by 60 Minutes and this masthead, along with two other families who have lost loved ones at privately run emergency departments, overseen by embattled company Healthscope.
A coroner’s inquest was told James had been given two doses of adrenaline by paramedics before being transferred to Holmesglen for observation. He developed a wheeze as he was being wheeled into the hospital, which was a sign the medication was wearing off and he needed more.
But the wheeze was not recorded in the handover from the paramedics to the triage nurse, despite James also using his asthma puffer consistently as he struggled to breathe.
“James at that point of triage could have and should have gotten immediate adrenalin, that’s the drug that is the baseline standard of care for anybody having an anaphylactic reaction” says Slater and Gordon lawyer Shari Liby, who represented the Tsindos family at the inquest.
He was incorrectly triaged as a category 3 patient, to be seen by a doctor within 30 minutes, and put in an isolation room while awaiting a COVID test, instead of a resuscitation room.
James then deteriorated and went into cardiac arrest, suffering a catastrophic brain injury.
James’s father Harry Tsindos said that ever since, they have been trying to find out what happened to their son.
James Tsindos.
“I’m burying my son, and I don’t really know what happened,” he said. “I’ve got a kid that walks into an ambulance, says to me, ‘Dad, I’m fine’, and I’m burying him, and I don’t know why.
“I mean, when you say to me what went wrong – what went wrong is that we took him to Holmesglen [Private] Hospital. That’s what went wrong.”
James’ sisters, Kristina and Georgia, said their brother’s death was preventable, and the quiet piano and empty hallway are daily reminders of the anger they have towards Healthscope at what they’ve lost.
“I personally don’t think they should have an emergency department. They should scratch their whole emergency department,” Kristina said.
Georgia said her brother’s death just “wasn’t meant to happen”.
“I’m angry at the hospital. I’m angry at the fact that he didn’t get to live his life and I’m angry that he was only 17 when this happened to him. It was so preventable.”
The Tsindos family said knowing a simple shot of adrenaline could have saved their boy had torn them apart.
“It’s adrenaline … the simplicity and the devastation of not doing that. It’s gut-wrenching,” Harry said.
Elouise and Danny Massa holding a pair of their son Joe’s shoes in his favourite part of the family’s garden in Balgowlah.Credit: Kate Geraghty and supplied
“What they should have said is, “We are sorry. This shouldn’t have happened. James should still be alive. We screwed up, bad. And we’re going to work out why and we’re going to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Wife Venetia added: “It’s not only frustrating, but it’s tragic and traumatic to try and come to terms with the fact that first aid wasn’t actioned in an emergency hospital.”
The Tsindos family are not the only ones outraged by the failings of Healthscope.
In 2017, pregnant mum Annie Moylan died after her deadly sepsis was misdiagnosed as gastro at Holmesglen, and last September two-year-old Joe Massa died at the Northern Beaches Hospital in Sydney after waiting almost three hours for help.
Joe’s father, Danny Massa, believes Healthscope should not be in charge of emergency care in Australia.
“Not by any stretch of the imagination, we aren’t an isolated case through the care of Healthscope in emergency departments. It makes my blood boil,” Massa said.
Northern Beaches provides both public and private beds in a unique partnership with the New South Wales government. The company announced last week it is in talks to hand the hospital back to the state government amid numerous inquiries into Joe’s death.
Healthscope’s financial future is also uncertain, currently struggling to pay its rent under the weight of a $1.6 billion debt. It’s owned by Canadian asset manager Brookfield.
“They are failing and what does it come down to? Cost,” Joe’s mother Elouise Massa said.
“Enough is enough.”
Healthscope chief executive Tino La Spina said in a statement that its eight emergency departments cared for nearly 150,000 patients every year with most receiving timely and compassionate care from hospitals which met or exceeded the national average for quality and safety performance.
“Regrettably, we acknowledge that there can be times, though they are rare, when our patient care and outcomes do not meet the standards we set for ourselves or the standard expected by the public,” the statement said.
La Spina said Healthscope was co-operating fully with the inquest into the death of James Tsindos and would implement any of the coroner’s recommendations.
La Spina also acknowledged there were “unacceptable failings” in the treatment of toddler Joe Massa, and they were “unreservedly sorry” that he “did not receive the care he deserved”.
He said Healthscope had also implemented all coronial recommendations regarding sepsis awareness to staff following the death of Annie Moylan, noting a finding that no nursing or medical management could have prevented her death.
However, Annie’s parents, Brian and Marg, said they were distressed at Healthscope’s statement, claiming the company has distorted the coroner’s findings about their daughter Annie’s death.
The Moylans said Healthscope had ignored vital facts including the timing of Annie’s treatment and when she could and could not be saved.
“We did not ask for any of this, and have been broken to read the Healthscope statement,” they said.
“Annie did everything appropriate to go to the Holmesglen Private Hospital emergency department upon becoming ill, for herself and her unborn daughter. She should have been safe. Then, to have to resort to reading in detail Annie’s Coronial Findings of 2023 was extremely harrowing and triggering, to establish the facts.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.