Ellie Ann Wilson has won an application allowing her to sue Mackay Hospital and Health Service over her sister’s death 22 years ago

The woman wants to sue Mackay Base Hospital after watching her sister die 22 years ago.

A Mackay woman wants to sue Mackay Hospital and Health Service for negligence after she was allegedly diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after witnessing the death of her younger sister 22 years ago. Picture: Tony Martin

A part-time teacher has won the right to sue a public hospital after witnessing the death of her baby sister 22 years ago in Mackay.

Since then Ellie Ann Wilson, 23, has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and told it would impact her ability to work full-time.

She was about 3.5 years old when she saw her sister Kate die in her home at Mackay as her parents and paramedics tried to save her life on February 27, 1999.

Baby Kate, 2, died about four hours after she was sent home from Mackay Base Hospital after a doctor advised to give her gastrolyte.

“Ellie recalls that time as one of great distress. Ellie subsequently suffered from disturbing dreams,” Supreme Court Justice Graeme Crow said in a recent judgment.

She wants to sue Mackay Hospital and Health Services for negligence over her PTSD, however the statute of limitations ended in August 2016 when Ms Wilson turned 21 years old.

Ms Wilson applied to the supreme court to extend the statute of limitations allowing her to make a negligence claim against the hospital.

Lawyers for the hospital tried to quash the move, arguing Ms Wilson had not “established any of the necessary elements” for the application to be successful.

A court judgment stated Ms Wilson had been receiving therapy and seeing a psychologist for some time for her PTSD, depression and anxiety stemming from her sister’s death but “she had never been informed of any serious economic impact resulting from her condition”.

It was not until March 2021 a psychiatrist assessed Ms Wilson as “having a Class 2 impairment in respect of adaptation” and as a result could not work more than 20 hours in her current position “or could work full-time but in a different position”.

“As the evidence above shows, Ellie has spent several years of her life training to become a teacher and it would now seem is unable to fulfil full-time work in that role due to her diagnoses,” Justice Crow found.

“Given her extreme youth (relative to a normal working career), the ‘material fact’ that she would not be able to work full-time or pursue employment in her chosen field is one which converts her claim to a ‘worthwhile claim’ which is sufficient to ‘justify the bringing of an action on the right of action’.”

Hospital lawyers also argued prejudice over the “likelihood of distress” by the doctor who saw Kate that morning at the hospital.

“While difficult and traumatic for Dr Sadlier, I conclude that does not amount to a specific prejudice,” Justice Crow said.

“Due to the nature of the injury of PTSD, and the likely effect of bringing the claim … I conclude that there is detriment both to (Ms Wilson) and to Dr Sadlier in the bringing of a claim.

“However that detriment, in my view, is of less weight than the extinguishment of Ellie’s rights to bring a claim in respect of the PTSD which she is diagnosed with.

“In my view, where Ellie has in fact already suffered from a relapse in her symptoms as a result of bringing the application and having been medically advised as to the likelihood of harm being suffered by bringing the claim, yet nonetheless persists in bringing her claim fortifies the conclusion that it is appropriate that the discretion to extend the time limitation period ought to be exercised in her favour.”