Victorian hospital staff brushed off concerns about a baby with a blue face and cold hands before he died of an undiagnosed heart defect that could have been fixed with a 15-minute operation.
Liam was born in 2006 at the Djerriwarrh Health Service in Bacchus Marsh, which is now under investigation over a cluster of baby deaths due to “multi-system” staff failures.
His mother Nichole Bink was just 22 and having her first baby when the staff at Djerriwarrh didn’t pick up his heart defect.
After his death she went to see a cardiologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital to find out if she had a genetic problem.
“He basically turned around and said to me `It’s a 15 minute operation and it has a 99 per cent success rate’,” Ms Bink told AAP on Saturday.
“It’s pretty devastating… to have someone sit in front of you and say ‘Oh, we could have fixed it if he was born here’.”
Ms Bink asked staff about Liam’s cold hands and blue face, but says they brushed off her concerns.
“The actual day he passed away I was in the maternal child health service office in Bacchus Marsh and (a staff member) said he was fine,” she said.
A review has highlighted 11 baby deaths at Djerriwarrh from 2013 to 2015, with seven of them deemed potentially avoidable.
But Ms Bink says authorities need to look further back.
“Even now, it’s been almost 10 years, I can’t hold a new born baby, I can’t look at a new born baby,” she said.
“I spent years blaming myself for his death.”
Ms Bink said she didn’t sleep for a year after having her second child, for fear of losing him.
Parents of seven babies who died at the hospital were this week told the deaths could have been avoided.
The Department of Health said those deaths have been blamed on a series of catastrophic clinical and governance failures at the health service.
Obstetrics expert Euan Wallace’s review identified a “multi-system failure” but said no one doctor was common to each case.
Staff ability to monitor fetal heart rates was one concern identified.
A former director of obstetrics and gynaecology at Djerriwarrh, Surinder Parhar, was investigated for 28 months after a complaint from a colleague over a baby’s death in February, 2013.
It’s understood he has left the country.
Health Minister Jill Hennessy has sacked the Djerriwarrh board.
Dr John Ballard, appointed to the board as a delegate for Ms Hennessy earlier this year, on Saturday moved to reassure patients the service was safe.
However, he admitted it would take some time to rebuild community trust.
“We are putting in place measures to ensure that the present and future safety of the health service and maternity services are in place and importantly, providing support to staff,” Dr Ballard told reporters.
Senior staff from the Royal Women’s Hospital, in Melbourne, have been seconded to Djerriwarrh to provide expert oversight and better clinical training for staff.
Maurice Blackburn says it will launch legal action against the service and has spoken to several families involved.