NewsBite

Kai’s surgery cancellations add to trying time

Kai Sawyer is almost three and mad about trucks. But a little over a year ago he couldn’t do much without a choking cough.

Kristal Sawyer and her son Kai, 2, whose scheduled heart surgery at 15 months was cancelled four times at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Picture: John Feder
Kristal Sawyer and her son Kai, 2, whose scheduled heart surgery at 15 months was cancelled four times at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Picture: John Feder

Kai Sawyer is almost three and mad about trucks, bikes and anything else with wheels. But a little over a year ago he couldn’t do much without breaking into a choking cough.

In late 2017, he had surgery to correct a congenital heart defect. His mother, Kristal, says he is now a different child: his cough has disappeared and his eating has improved. But it was an agonisingly stressful process.

Kai’s heart surgery was booked at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney’s west, four times — then cancelled. Three times because there were no beds available in the intensive care unit and once because the surgeon had to attend another emergency. Finally, his doctor agreed to perform the surgery at the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick, in the city’s east.

The surgery corrected a defect known as a double aortic arch, which was causing a 60 per cent compression of Kai’s main airway.

Kai is now a happy, thriving little boy. However, Ms Sawyer, who lives in the Liberal-held seat of Camden, has decided to speak about her son’s experiences amid a bitter turf war over cardiac services between Sydney’s two children’s hospitals.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard last week announced $608 million for the Randwick children’s hospital ($428m from the state government) for a new comprehensive children’s cancer centre and a new emergency department, which doctors have been calling for.

The funding will help bolster the Coalition’s chances in the marginal state seat of Coogee, which is under threat from Labor. But the minister has failed to resolve the dispute over cardiac services that has spilt into the public arena.

Some Westmead-based doctors have argued all paediatric heart surgery should take place at Westmead to ensure the best standard of care. They say a “two-site model” makes it more difficult to attract the best doctors and meant children needing a heart transplant have to fly to Melbourne.

However, doctors at Randwick have warned children will die in emergencies without the presence of cardiac surgery on their campus. They accuse Westmead-based doctors, who manage cardiac services at both hospitals, of running down their unit and “wilfully under-utilising” available beds.

A Randwick-based doctor said yesterday that the major new funding injection was welcomed but “more than ever” cardiac services would be needed to care for critically ill children with cancer or in the emergency department.

Ms Sawyer said it was frustrating that operations were being cancelled when there was capacity elsewhere. “No cardiac patient should be rescheduled five times,” she said. “It’s all well and good that they want to have one hospital to concentrate all these surgeries, but if that hospital cannot handle it, you have to spread it over to a different hospital as well.”

The Australian revealed last year that children at Westmead faced a 59 per cent chance of their heart surgery being cancelled­ the first time they were scheduled, while 30 per cent were cancelled two or more times.

Ms Sawyer said it had not mattered to her family, based in Sydney’s southwest — far from both hospitals — where the surgery took place. They just wanted Kai, their only child, to get better.

Each time the surgery was scheduled they took days off work and prepared mentally for the operation. The first time, Kai fasted all day before the family was told at 2pm there would be no ICU bed.

“It was emotionally draining,” Ms Sawyer said. “I cried when I was told it would be cancelled.”

At one point, she asked her doctor if the surgery could take place anywhere else. The doctor insisted it needed to take place at Westmead before finally agreeing, after the fourth cancellation, to do the operation at Randwick.

She said if the equipment was inferior at Randwick, it needed to be upgraded. “These are children’s lives we are talking about.”

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/health/kais-surgery-cancellations-add-to-trying-time/news-story/86be93e9b84b4193d5a8c074ee4d0a44