Coronavirus: Heartfelt anguish over ‘neglect’ of newborns with heart problems

The deaths of four newborns have rocked medical professionals in Adelaide, the only mainland state capital that does not offer dedicated ­paediatric cardiac surgery.

Adelaide-born Abigail Baker, 8, with parents Scott and Kylie had to undergo life-saving surgery in Melbourne when she was 18 days old. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

The lives of four newborn babies could have been saved if the South Australian health department had heeded explicit written warnings that babies with heart problems would die if they continued to be flown to Melbourne for surgery rather than being operated on in Adelaide.

The emergence of the advice comes after it was revealed on Tuesday that four babies had died at Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital after they were unable to be flown to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital for specialist cardiac surgery that is no longer offered in the state.

Their fate was sealed because Victoria’s lockdown meant they were unable to be flown to ­Melbourne for treatment.

Their deaths have rocked medical professionals in Adelaide, the only mainland state capital that does not offer dedicated ­paediatric cardiac surgery.

The service was axed by Labor in 2003 but the Marshall government is now under fire for failing to reinstate it — despite warnings last year from doctors to SA Health.

In their July 2019 submission, senior clinicians at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital presented a formal case to SA Health urging the reinstatement of cardiac ­surgery. The proposal covered not just babies in SA with heart problems but also babies in the Northern Territory who currently also have to fly to Melbourne but could be treated in Adelaide if the service were re-established.

The submission lists “avoidable mortality” as the key reason for reintroducing cardiac surgery at the WCH. “SA and NT children and their families face multiple risks attributable to the current model of care,” the submission reads.

In the charts outlining the business case, the specialists wrote that “near-miss events have occurred” and “at least one avoidable death has occurred”.

Happy Valley mother Kylie Baker endured the grief of nine miscarriages before her “miracle child” Abigail was born, only to almost die several times during two emergency heart operations in Melbourne in the first year of life.

Abigail Baker in hospital as a newborn.

Abigail, who is now eight, was 18 days old when she had her first operation in Melbourne and 10 months old when she had her second for tetralogy of fallot, a condition that rapidly pushes oxygen levels in babies lower.

Ms Baker and her husband, Scott, were forced to fly to Melbourne for three months on both occasions — almost losing their daughter on the operating table.

“When they told us they had to operate, we flew out the next day, it was like a whirlwind,” Ms Baker said. “Our heads were spinning, we didn’t know what to pack, we didn’t know how long we would be there, we were going into the unknown.”

“Abby beat the odds but it is so sad for these other little ones. We should not have lost four babies. Blaming COVID is a cop-out. We should have the service here.”

Adelaide obstetrician John ­Svigos on Tuesday told a SA parliamentary committee the “usual referral to the Melbourne cardiac unit” was untenable during the pandemic.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Wednesday said the decision not to send babies to Melbourne “was a choice not at our end but the other end for them not to be sent”.

“I send my sympathies but I don’t think it is a matter of restrictions,” he said.

SA Health Minister Steven Wade said last year’s submission to his department had been looked at but rejected by an independent group of senior Australian paediatricians on safety grounds, suggesting there were not enough acute paediatric cardiac episodes in the state for local surgeons to develop and maintain the requisite level of skill.

“The independent report recommended against establishing a cardiac service as it said with the low numbers of cases coming through the service here in SA, there would actually be worse outcomes to vulnerable babies,” he said.

However, he went on to say that the WCH had reopened the matter and conceded there was great distress among medical staff about the events of the past month.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families,” he said.