Amy Russell criticises SCHHS response to misdiagnosis

The mother of a little girl whose appendix burst after her condition was misdiagnosed because there was no weekend ultrasound available at Gympie Hospital, says the response she got from the presiding health service was ‘insulting’.

Amy Russell, whose daughter's burst appendix was only diagnosed eight days after her first trip to Gympie Hospital due to a lack of weekend regional ultrasound services, says the Health Service’s response to her matter has fallen short.

A Gympie mum whose daughter’s life-threatening appendicitis went undiagnosed for a week says she feels “insulted” by the Sunshine Coast Regional Health Service’s response.

Amy Russell took her six-year-old daughter, who she has asked not be named, to Gympie Hospital last month after the young girl said she was in “agony,” only to be sent home with a gastroenteritis diagnosis after being unable to access ultrasound services.

Those services are not open at Gympie Hospital on weekends.

Ms Russell said she was first alerted to her daughter’s condition on Friday, March 17.

After first vomiting and then complaining about a “sore tummy”, Ms Russell thought it might be gastro.

The next morning, however, her daughter woke up saying the “pain was getting worse”.

By the time they got into the car “she was screaming”.

“Every bump we hit she was holding her tummy and crying,” Ms Russell said.

Gympie mother Amy Russell took her six-year-old daughter to Gympie Hospital on Saturday, March 18, after the young girl was left in “agony”, but after her pain subsided while they were waiting in the emergency department they were sent home with a diagnosis of gastroenteritis. She was unable to obtain an ultrasound for her daughter, as the service is not open at the hospital at weekends.

When they presented at the Emergency Department her daughter was “guarded and hunching” and “still visibly in pain”.

By the time they were seen by a doctor, Ms Russell said her daughter’s symptoms had subsided.

She pushed for an ultrasound to be sure, but was told by the doctor he “can’t do anything for her” as the hospital’s ultrasound machines were not manned on weekends.

Ms Russell and her daughter were sent home with the advice “if it gets really bad, agony that doesn’t go away, you go straight to the (Sunshine Coast University Hospital). Keep driving because there’s nothing we can do here”.

Over the next week her daughter’s condition did not get worse, but it did not improve either.

Amy Russell returned to Gympie Hospital on Friday, March 24, after her daughter’s pain refused to disappear. Following an ultrasound, the six-year-old was rushed to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital for surgery on her appendix, which had burst and left her daughter’s internal anatomy “unrecognisable”.

Ms Russell finally decided to take her back to Gympie Hospital on the morning of Friday, March 24, when she knew ultrasound services would be opened.

Through her “persistence” she was finally able to get an ultrasound for her daughter, who was then rushed to SCUH for surgery.

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Ms Russell said the surgeon who operated on her daughter said “her appendix was obliterated”; what the ultrasound had in fact picked up was an abscess.

She was told her daughter’s “anatomy was unrecognisable” and “it was bad, it was really bad”.

Amy Russell’s experience was raised by Gympie LNP MP Tony Perrett, who sent a letter to Health Minister Yvette D’Ath on Ms Russell’’s behalf and then spoke about it during parliament.

Ms Russell believed the appendix had ruptured while they were waiting in Gympie Hospital’s ED on their first visit.

Had there been ultrasound services available, she said, it would have been picked up then.

After Gympie LNP MP Tony Perrett sent a letter to Health Minister Yvette D’Ath about Ms Russell’s matter and raised it in parliament, she received a response from Sunshine Coast Health and Hospital Services CEO Dr Peter Gillies.

In the April 13 letter, Dr Gillies said he “understood how disappointed” Ms Russell was with the initial outcome of her trip to Gympie Hospital and her concerns around access to ultrasounds at the facility”.

A medical case review concluded “the provisional diagnosis, management and follow-up advice given were appropriate with the information known at the time”.

Ms Russell’s daughter had an “uncommon presentation of a serious illness”, and the assessment, investigation and treatment following her return to the hospital eight days later was likewise appropriate.

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Ultrasound services are available from Monday through Friday, with examinations and treatment determining need for the service after hours and in some time critical cases there may be a need to transfer to other sites.

Ms Russell said Friday she felt “insulted” by the response.’

Amy Russell said the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service’s response to her matter, outlined in an April 13 letter, left her feeling “insulted” and as though her daughter was not sick enough to require an ultrasound when she “absolutely was”.

“I felt like they were saying ‘we’re sorry it happened but your daughter wasn’t sick enough to warrant an ultrasound’,” Ms Russell said.

“She absolutely was sick enough,” she said, adding the doctor had told her “if I had access to an ultrasound I would give one”.

In response to questions about Ms Russell’s criticisms of the SCHHS’s response, a spokeswoman said the service “regularly reviews patient outcomes and due to patient confidentiality, we aren’t able to provide details about this individual patient’s experience”.

“Sunshine Coast Health hospitals are networked and work together to provide healthcare services to our communities.

“It is not uncommon for patients to access after-hours diagnostic medical imaging at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.”

Ms Russell said she was not looking for a finding of fault or direct responsibility for what happened.

She wanted the incident to serve as a “wake-up call” to Queensland Health about the need for these services in regional areas.

Following the incident she had spoken with other people about their experiences in the health system and had heard “a lot of horrible ones”.

“It’s not an isolated incident,” she said.