Inquest into music festival deaths hears medical services ‘probably’ unprepared

There was a ‘lack of planning’ for 30,000 patrons of a festival where two people died, inquest told.

Mike Hammond, the CEO of the medical provider at Defqon1 music festival, at which two people died from drug overdoses. Picture: Adam Yip

The director of the medical service at the 2018 NSW Defqon1 music festival at which two patrons died from a drug overdose has told the NSW Coroner he had “probably” been unprepared to manage two critical drug overdoses at the same time.

Mike Hammond, the CEO of EMS Event Services, which was the medical provider at all five NSW music festivals where six revellers fatally overdosed on the party drug MDMA, agreed there had been a “lack of planning” for the 30,000 patrons.

Diana Nguyen, 21 and Joseph Pham, 23, were both in a critical condition when they were bought into the medical tent within six minutes of each other at the Defqon1 festival in Sydney on 15 September 2018. They died in hospital several hours later.

Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame is investigating their deaths, as well as the fatal overdoses of Nathan Tran, 18, Alex Ross-King, 19, Joshua Tam, 22 and Callum Brosnan, 19, at NSW music festivals between December 2017 and January 2019.

Under questioning on Monday by counsel assisting the coroner, Dr Peggy Dwyer, Mr Hammond said after 15 years of operating EMS – the main medical services provider of the state’s music festivals – he had “never had that experience before”.

He said his medical team for the 30,000 revellers at Defqon1 – billed as one of the biggest “hardstyle” dance music events in the world – included one senior and one junior doctor, as well as a team of nurses and paramedics which he had believed was adequate at the time.

The inquest has heard evidence from NSW Ambulance manager of the State Planning Unit, Michael Bray, that on the night of the festival the medical tent had been already been “overwhelmed by multiple critical patients” on the night, even before the arrival of Mr Pham and Ms Nguyen.

Joseph Pham.

Diana Nguyen.

Dr Dwyer said an expert report by associate professor Anna Holdgate, had also concluded the EMS medical service that night had been “disorganised, delayed and incomplete”.

Dr Holdgate found it should have been clear Mr Pham was in such serious trouble he needed to go to hospital immediately. Instead staff had delayed his transfer until he had a cardiac arrest and died less than an hour after his arrival at hospital.

It would also take 70 minutes to transfer Ms Nguyen to hospital where she died 35 minutes after arrival.

Under questioning from Dr Dwyer, Mr Hammond conceded a there had been a lack of leadership in managing Mr Pham’s care and he should have been taken to hospital sooner.

He said he had twice followed the instructions of Dr Andrew Beshara, the junior doctor on duty, requesting an ambulance for Mr Pham within minutes of his arrival at 7.34pm and again at 8.18pm. But he conceded, even now, he didn’t know “why it had taken so long”.

Dr Dwyer said at a debriefing of NSW Ambulance officers five days after the Defqon1 festival two of the officers had been deeply upset and “expressed concern about the excessive delay” getting Ms Nguyen and Mr Pham to hospital.

The NSW Ambulance manager of the State Planning Unit, Michael Bray, had also observed the EMS team appeared to have been “overwhelmed by multiple critical patients” on the night.

Mr Hammond told the NSW coroner, Harriet Grahame, in the lead up to the 2018 music festival season in which five of the six drug deaths occurred he had noticed a clear trend towards patrons super sizing their doses of MDMA.

“We’ve seen a definite increase … in the dosage the patients are taking… once upon a time it was two caps or three caps, now its five, six, or eight,” Mr Hammond said.