James Daniel Tabuai’s fatal injuries ‘could have been prevented’ by earlier hospital visit, counsel submits
It would be open for a coroner to find that a seven-month-old boy’s fatal head injuries could have been prevented if his mother had taken him to the Cairns Hospital when referred to do so two weeks earlier by a doctor, an inquest has heard.
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IT WOULD be open for a coroner to find that a seven-month-old boy’s fatal head injuries could have been prevented if his mother had taken him to the Cairns Hospital when referred to do so two weeks earlier by a doctor, an inquest has heard.
READ DAY ONE’S COVERAGE HERE>>
READ DAY TWO’S COVERAGE HERE>>
Making submissions to Northern Coroner Nerida Wilson at the end of a three-day coronial inquest into the death of seven-month-old James Daniel Tabuai, counsel assisting Molly Mahlouzarides also submitted it was open to Ms Wilson to find the infant’s family had not been honest with the court or police as to the extent of their knowledge about who or what has caused his fatal injuries.
The court heard bubba James, as he was referred to by his family, suffered two distinct sets of head injuries before his death – one in the weeks prior and the second, fatal injury in the minutes or hours before he was observed having difficulty breathing at his grandmother’s Edmonton home on February 1, 2013.
Ms Mahlouzarides said Ms Wilson may find it was likely the first, non-fatal head injury had occurred by January 14, 2013.
The inquest heard bubba James’ mother Synoa Tabuai had been urged by her mother Germaine Lenoy on that day to take him to a doctor after she observed him tired, not playful, not smiling, and he had vomited clear fluid.
The court heard Ms Tabuai took bubba James to the doctor the next day.
The doctor completed a referral for bubba James to attend the Emergency Department at the Cairns Hospital and he instructed Ms Tabuai to take her son there immediately.
She did not.
Ms Tabuai first claimed to the inquest on Wednesday to have no memory of the doctor visit at all, but then said she recalled a different visit to a 24-hour medical centre and accepted she had been told to go to hospital with bubba James.
Ms Mahlouzarides asked if she was worried what doctors might find out if she took her son to hospital on that day.
“No, I was tired,” she said.
“Too tired to worry about what might be wrong with James?” Ms Mahlouzarides asked.
“Yeah I know it was selfish of me,” she said.
In her submissions to Ms Wilson, Ms Mahlouzarides said Ms Tabuai’s version about the events with the doctor had developed over time.
“It is an inference that could be drawn by the court that if Synoa had inflicted these injuries or knew they had been inflicted by someone else, that may be why she was reluctant to seek further medical treatment at a hospital, where the full extent of the injuries was likely to have been discovered,” Ms Mahlouzarides said.
“Further, it is open to Your Honour to find, in my submission, that if Synoa had taken James to a hospital as she was advised to do, action may have been taken by the hospital and child safety which could have prevented the second fatal set of injuries being inflicted only two weeks later.”
The court also heard what Ms Mahlouzarides said was “clear medical evidence” that bubba James’ fatal skull fractures were “non-accidental”.
She submitted there was sufficient evidence for Ms Wilson to conclude someone was involved in inflicting the injuries.
That night, the court heard bubba James was surrounded by family at the home, where the adults present were Ms Tabuai, Ms Lenoy, and his aunty and uncle Danielle Tabuai and Ehammed Anderson.
“None of the family members in what was then a tight-knit family can offer the court any explanation as to how James came to suffer these very serious injuries when they were all staying at the same small house together,” Ms Mahlouzarides said.
“My submission is it is open to Your Honour to find the family has not been honest with this court or the police as to the extent of their knowledge about who and what caused James’ fatal injuries.”
Ms Mahlouzarides submitted it was most likely Ms Tabuai, who was under the influence of alcohol that night and who admitted to the inquest she was stressed and angry and found her emotions hard to control at that time, who was the person most likely to have inflicted the fatal injuries to her son.
Ms Tabuai’s lawyer Angela Taylor submitted she wasn’t sure Ms Wilson could make any comment or findings “towards the potential hypothetical actions that child safety may have taken if there had been an earlier injury that had been discovered”.
Ms Taylor also said it was her client’s evidence that she wasn’t left alone with her baby that day, and that from the evidence before the court “it appears that might be quite true”.
“It would appear there would be very limited opportunity for her to be by herself with the baby that day,“ she said.
“It would be my submission there was not the opportunity for her to deliver the injury.”
Ms Wilson said she expected to deliver her findings within one to two months.
READ DAY ONE’S COVERAGE HERE>>
READ DAY TWO’S COVERAGE HERE>>
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