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A NEWBORN BABY has died after being given laughing gas instead of oxygen in a tragic mix-up at an Australian hospital which left another infant severely disabled.
A doctor raised the alarm after the baby boy died unexpectedly earlier this month, with tests revealing that an outlet in the wall at Sydney’s Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital was emitting nitrous oxide instead of oxygen.
Another baby is fighting for her life after being wrongly administered the incorrect gas in June.
New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner, who has ordered an investigation, said she felt “profound sorrow” at the “tragic mistake”.
“There were only two babies affected fortunately,” she told reporters in Sydney.
I am assured there are no other incidents such as this.
The gas errors come less than six months after it was revealed that dozens of cancer patients at another Sydney hospital were given the wrong chemotherapy dosages as long ago as 2012.
Skinner said she had no plans to resign.
“If it was found that there was total negligence, something that I personally could have prevented, that might be when I would say I’ll resign but I’m not convinced that that’s the case in this situation,” she said.
The uncle of the dead boy, David Kharma, said the family were in shock at what had happened.
“You can’t imagine living in a developed country in the 21st century and stuff like this happening,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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“There were only 2 babies affected fortunately” What a bloody awful thing to say, 1 family dealing with a devastating death of their baby, another with a life changing brain injury to their baby. People should really think before they speak, you never know until you walk in their shoes.
Agree that really struck me when I read it! There should have been no families affected because it should never have happened
After living in Australia for some years i can tell you this they don’t give a damn about anything, most of them rock up to work without a care in the world and never worry if they should double check if everything is ok, if the sh¡t hits the fan and things go wrong there is usually no one to blame.
@ P.ENNIS – FFS, You find bad management in every industry, in every country. A few years ago my Dad got very sick and was in hospital for five months, I can’t remember even one health care provider during that time that didn’t go over and above for him and us, they were amazing and I hope that any future medical care any of my family needs is provided in Oz, despite this report.
That being said, I tried to get Optus to fix my Aunts internet last time I was there and they were a complete headache. So yeah, Optus suck.
What a ridiculous sweeping statement you make about all Australians.
Jaysus…
This is awful! It shouldn’t have happened at all, yet they are claiming no negligence to causing the death of a child, and severely injuring another because they gave them the wrong gas.
I read yesterday that the bottles are different colours and the hospital were using the correct colour so could be a manufacturing problem. The bottle was fitted last September though so you would imagine it would have been copped before this! Poor little babies and their families, absolutely heartbreaking.
This article is ridiculously light on detail. The installation and maintenance of the gas is handled by the supplier BOC and not by the hospital. It was negligence on the part of the installer placing the wrong gas in the wrong system that caused this.
It was lucky there wasn’t more than 2…
They having a laugh!!!?
Crude and crass.
disgusting.
Terrible mate.
Idiots
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