Parents take legal action against a GP and hospital for failing to diagnose her deadly illness

A Cranbourne West mum says her daughter could have been spared a lot of the complications she suffered if she had a simple X-ray.

Shaylah with her parents Kirra and Scott Carmichael. Picture: Tony Gough

The parents of a girl who swallowed a button battery are suing a GP and hospital for failing to diagnose her deadly illness for six agonising months.

Kirra and Scott Carmichael claim in court documents they took then five-year-old daughter Shaylah to the family doctor four times before finally being referred to a pediatrician for her random daily vomiting, refusal to eat, abdominal pain and gurgling sound in her throat.

However, despite Monash Medical Centre in Clayton contacting the Cranbourne West family to say Shaylah would need an urgent gastroscopy that week, an appointment was never made due to a hospital mix-up.

Instead, Ms Carmichael ­returned to her GP, Michael Stobie at Marriott Waters Medical Centre in Lyndhurst, for a desperate fifth time.

Shaylah swallowed a button battery when she was five years old and suffered from random daily vomiting, refusal to eat, abdominal pain and gurgling sound in her throat. Picture: Tony Gough

Shaylah was now regurgitating and vomiting, could not eat or drink, and was refusing to open her mouth.

But they were again sent away without answers.

In utter frustration, Ms Carmichael took her daughter to the emergency department at nearby Casey Hospital

Alarmingly, Shaylah was cleared to go home after ­receiving fluids.

Ms Carmichael, thankfully, refused to leave. It was only then that a chest X-ray was ­ordered and a 20mm “foreign body” was discovered in Shaylah’s oesophagus.

She was taken to Monash Medical Centre in Clayton – where she should have had an appointment 15 weeks earlier – and rushed into surgery to ­remove the button battery.

Relieved doctors thanked Ms Carmichael for her persistence, telling her Shaylah would almost certainly have died had it not been removed within the next 24 hours.

An X-ray shows the a button battery in her oesophagus.

Shaylah was rushed into surgery to have the button battery removed. Picture: Tony Gough

But she was not out of the woods yet.

“When I went to Casey Hospital and they said she’s well enough to go home, I felt sick, like I needed to vomit because I knew this was so serious,” Ms Carmichael said. “You know your child.

“I’m so glad I stood my ground because Shaylah wouldn’t be alive if I went home that day.

“She had the X-ray done and then, in what seemed like the next minute, she was ICU with all these tubes coming out of her. They were telling us it was catastrophic and they didn’t know if she would live – that they just had to take it hour by hour.”

She added: “I was lost for words. Completely numb. My child is lying there, fighting for life, and you are left questioning yourself, asking ‘what else could I have done?’ ”

Shaylah was in the intensive care unit.

The operation marked six distressing months of pleas for medical help from the Cranbourne West family.

“I don’t think I can put into words how frustrating it is to go and see your doctor, not get anywhere, and watch your child get worse and worse,” Ms Carmichael said.

“I was doing the right thing. I was making appointment after appointment, banging on the door telling them she wasn’t right.

“But every time nothing was done and I was left walking out scratching my head. I felt like I was going mad.”

Shaylah did pull through, but has had complications ever since the 2018 ordeal.

“The battery had perforated her oesophagus causing it to become so small she couldn’t eat or drink for a long period of time, it had eroded that much,” Ms Carmichael said.

“So even when she did feel like eating, we had to feed her by tube. It was so hard not to feel like you were punishing them even more.

“She has missed so much school and is still trying to catch up. But she has good friends that support her.”

Ms Carmichael added: “I’m taking action because I just don’t want another family to go through this. We are so, so lucky Shaylah is alive but she could have been spared a lot of the complications she suffered if she had a simple X-ray.

“Laws have come in regarding the sale of button batteries and making sure they go into child resistant battery compartments in products. But the rules now need to be changed at GP clinics and hospitals so that any child presenting with these symptoms undergoes an X-ray straight away. That’s something I am campaigning for because it is literally a matter of life and death.”

The Carmichael family, represented by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, claim Dr Stobie and Monash Health breached their duty of care and Shaylah should not have suffered the injuries she did.

Ms Carmichael has joined Bella’s Footprints which raises awareness on button batteries.