Woman died after misdiagnosis and discharge from Launceston General Hospital

A woman in her 70s died after she was misdiagnosed at Launceston General Hospital, a coroner says. FULL STORY >>

A DELORAINE woman died after Launceston General Hospital staff misdiagnosed her medical condition and discharged her home, a coroner has found.

In his findings released Monday, Coroner Simon Cooper said Helen Mary Badcock, 77, died on Boxing Day, 2020, after receiving substandard care.

He said on Christmas Day, Mrs Badcock - who lived independently at home - was with her family when she experienced “significant pain” in her abdomen and numbness in her right leg.

Paramedics were unable to record her blood pressure on her right-hand side, which they noted before transporting her to hospital.

Paramedics also noted the hospital could not obtain a reading from Mrs Badcock’s right side.

Mrs Badcock was reviewed at hospital, which recorded the altered sensation in her right leg and foot.

A CT scan of her lumbar spine and blood tests were carried out before she was discharged home with painkillers.

Ambulances ramped at the Launceston General Hospital on January 4, 2021. Picture: HACSU

She died the following night from a tear in her aorta, a large artery that carries blood from the heart.

“Mrs Badcock was discharged, staff apparently concluding that her presentation was in some way attributable to the mild spinal degeneration indicated in the CT scan,” Mr Cooper said.

“Unfortunately this conclusion was not correct, as Mrs Badcock had suffered a type 1 aortic dissection. The fact that Mrs Badcock had suffered an aortic dissection should have been apparent because of the inability to obtain a blood pressure on her right side - something ambulance paramedics noticed and recorded, but staff at the Launceston General Hospital did not.”

Mr Cooper said the care she’d received at the hospital “was not of an acceptable standard”.

“I think it is clear that staff at the LGH did not understand the significance of the blood pressure difference, and thus missed an opportunity to diagnose the underlying cause for her presentation.”

However, the coroner did not find the hospital had a “systemic issue of misdiagnosis of aortic dissection”.

LGH Medical Services executive director Peter Renshaw offered his condolences to Mrs Badcock’s family. Dr Renshaw said hospital-wide learning and staff education had been rolled out following investigations into her death.

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