A mother says her desperate pleas for hospital staff to help her sick daughter were ignored before the eight-year-old died about 21 hours after being admitted to emergency.
Amrita Varshini Lanka died of lymphocytic myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, at Monash Children’s Hospital on 30 April 2022.
The girl went to the emergency room with stomach pain and fever.
Initial evaluations ruled out appendicitis and nurses believed Amrita had gastroenteritis.
But the boy developed breathing problems before going into cardiac arrest a few hours later and could not be resuscitated.
During an inquest on Monday, Satya Tarapureddi accused hospital staff of ignoring his pleas for help after his daughter began complaining of stomach pain.
When Amrita and her mother were brought to the hospital ward around 3pm, a nurse showed her the emergency call button she could press to get help.
Ms Tarapureddi said she pressed the button about seven times during the 21-hour ordeal, but no one came.
A distraught mother said hospital staff ignored her pleas for help before her daughter died
“Nobody was responding to me. They were ignoring me. I don’t know why,” she told Melbourne coroner’s court.
He asked a hospital cleaning employee for help, who confirmed that the button worked.
Ms Tarapureddi said she approached the nursing desk to tell them about her daughter’s pain and lack of response after pressing the button.
“The nurse told me I had to wait because they were having a conversation,” she said.
About 20 minutes later a nurse came with Nurofen and then left.
Hours later, Amrita began experiencing difficulty breathing and a doctor told her it was because she had not eaten anything.
In the early hours of April 30, Ms Tarapureddi expressed concern after seeing Amrita’s pulse rate increasing to more than 200 beats per minute.
But she said Dr Patrick Tan, the head physician of the emergency department that night, told her the machine was not working.
Eight-year-old Amrita died of heart inflammation after going to the emergency room with stomach pain and fever.
Amrita continued to complain of pain and had an electrocardiogram to assess the electrical signals in her heart.
Amrita’s mother said Dr Tan provided her with the report and said “everything was fine” even though he noted there were abnormal results.
Hours later, Amrita’s heart stopped for about two minutes before she was revived.
She died after suffering a second cardiac arrest while waiting to be transferred to the Royal Children’s Hospital.
“It’s not easy to lose a daughter. It’s very hard. They just ignored her,” Tarapureddi said.
“They lost my daughter. They killed my daughter.”
Dr Tan testified on Monday and acknowledged that there were oversights in Amrita’s care.
He was given 18 patients that night, instead of the usual 10, and said he did not appreciate the seriousness of the girl’s condition after having treated another category one patient.
Amrita Varshini Lanka died of lymphocytic myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.
Assessing Amrita’s abnormal heart report, Dr Tan said he felt it was “reassuring and not a significant abnormality”.
“At the time, in the context of a significant clinical burden, I did not recognize the interpretation,” he said.
“I would have changed if I realized the dissociation.”
Lawyers for Monash Health said staff failed to understand the severity of the condition and that Amrita’s blood pressure should have been monitored more regularly.
The inquest will investigate whether the care provided was reasonable, whether the family’s concerns were adequately addressed and whether any resource constraints or competing demands contributed to her death.
Outside court, Amrita’s parents hoped the inquest would provide answers to the “many questions we have about what went wrong… and how it could have been prevented.”
(tags to translate)dailymail
