‘What if my husband died?’: Danyelle Haigh hits out at Alice Springs Hospital after accident
Anthony Haigh had to be flown to Alice Springs Hospital after suffering head trauma, but his wife said she was ‘disappointed’ with how he was cared for.
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Danyelle Haigh did not see the moment her husband Anthony was hit in the head by a huge steel hose with 300 psi.
But the moments following the incident are now forever scored in her mind.
Seeing him at the site on the Barkly Highway lying unconscious in the dust, Danyelle, who runs Athelle Outback Hideaway with Anthony, said: “It was my worst nightmare coming true.
“He was white as a ghost.
“He was not with it from the moment it happened, so he couldn’t talk properly.
“And he was crying. This man only ever cried once in time that I’ve known him and that’s when I walked down the aisle.”
Anthony was taken to Tennant Creek Hospital where hospital staff carried out an ultrasound on him.
But while Anthony remained responsive, he started to display signs that were setting off alarm bells.
Medical staff told Danyelle he needed a CT scan “immediately” and started making plans for the Royal Flying Doctor Service to fly Anthony to Alice Springs Hospital which had the required equipment.
It was believed he could have a skull fracture or a blood clot which could lead to him needing surgery.
If that happened, he would have to be flown to Royal Darwin Hospital or to Adelaide.
“When I said goodbye to him … I didn’t know what was going to be happening,” she said.
“Could this be the last time I was ever going to see him?”
Problems at Alice Springs Hospital
Within two hours of arriving at Tennant Creek Hospital, Anthony was being flown to Alice Springs Hospital where Danyelle was told he would be scanned straight away and staff would call to update her around 3.30am on Saturday.
But after Danyelle returned home, by 4am the phone had yet to ring.
The Outback Truckers star eventually got through to a nurse at Alice Springs Hospital but when she asked about the scan results, she was told Anthony had not been scanned yet.
Asking to speak to the head doctor, she was told doctors do not speak to next of kin or family, which prompted some strong language from Danyelle and a hanging up of the phone from the nurse.
When Danyelle called back, the same nurse put her hand over the phone but was heard saying to a colleague ‘It’s that cranky wife of his again’.
By the time she got a doctor on the phone, Danyelle said she was very angry.
She was told Anthony was assessed again by staff when he arrived and “he was fine” and was “being himself and talking and laughing”.
“For starters,” Danielle said.
“How do you know what being himself is when you don’t know him?
“And secondly, if he’s talking and laughing, there’s something wrong because that’s not him.”
Hospital staff decided a scan was not necessary over night
It was said that when staff carried out the Glasgow Coma Scale – a test used to determine a person’s level of consciousness – on Anthony when he arrived, he scored 15 out of 15.
Deciding a scan was not required, staff carried out “close observations” every two hours despite Danyelle being told by doctors at Tennant it had to be every half-hour to “see if he got worse”.
Danyelle was told by a FIFO doctor the health professional who could carry out a scan did not start work until 7am and while there was a technician on call, they did not want to call him in if he was not needed as he was working the next day.
“And the doctor said, ‘We didn’t want to use the resources of him overnight when it wasn’t needed, when he was to be working during the day the next day’,” Danyelle said.
“And I said, ‘What if my husband died? What if he still does?’
“The doctor said ‘Oh well, he’s out of the woods now it’s been 12 hours. If anything was going to happen, it would have happened by now’.”
‘I want to fight for our health system’
After 7am on the Saturday, Anthony was scanned and Danyelle was told he had the all clear.
But for Danyelle, she said the outcome could easily have been very different.
“It’s so disappointing and disheartening to think that, if this has happened to him, what’s happened to other people, what’s going to happen to other people?”
She called for better facilities at Tennant Creek Hospital, more trained doctors and nurses who understood the NT and training for staff on patient care and communicating with family at Alice Springs Hospital after being labelled “aggressive” and the “cranky wife”.
Danyelle also said the health system needed more support from the federal government.
Danyelle said she wanted to use her voice and platform to fight to improve services.
“We are telling people ‘come to the NT’ but guess what? The health system sucks, so don’t get sick or hurt while you’re here because you won’t get looked after properly,” she said.
”This is why I want to fight for it because this is the future of my children and my grandchildren.”
NT Health said they are unable to comment on individual circumstances due to privacy, however a spokesman said they were committed to providing care as close to home as possible and one of the ways this was carried out was through regional hospitals.
“NT Health is constantly reviewing, assessing and adapting its service delivery to meet the needs of the community,” they said.
“All patients are medically assessed, with the appropriate treatment and care provided.
“If a patient requires further assessment or more acute care, they may be transferred to an alternative health facility to receive specialist treatment.
“All health professionals have professional standards they must adhere to within their practice, including communicating safely with patients.
“NT Health staff are expected to engage with patients and their family members in a professional manner as outlined in our core values and the various clinical guidelines and frameworks.”
They went on to say all staff undertook aggression minimisation and de-escalation courses to equip them to handle challenging patient and client situations.
If patients or family want to provide feedback to the health body, they can do so through the website.
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