It’s hard to imagine the torment two young parents are enduring as they sit through an inquest into the death in 2013 of their six-month-old son Kyran. As they listen to the evidence presented to the Coroner’s Court in Glebe, Grant and Naomi Day are reliving the dreadful days in October 19, 2013 when they lost their bubbly baby.
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Above all, they want an answer as to why they were failed by the public health system. Their motivation is not to prompt a witch hunt. They just want to prevent similar tragedies from recurring because they don’t want other parents to have go through the pain they have suffered.
The inquest has already heard how the initial diagnosis of gastroenteritis was wrong and once it was determined the baby was suffering a bowel obstruction there were difficulties in getting Kyran transferred by ambulance to the children’s hospital in Sydney.
Sadly, it’s an all too familiar story.
Over many years, the South Coast Register has chronicled instances of substandard care at Shoalhaven Hospital, of patients in extreme distress or discomfort waiting hours for treatment in the emergency department. On this very page, one of our regular readers coincidentally spells out the less than ideal treatment his cancer-suffering nephew received at the hospital.
We have also reported the growing problem of bed block, where ambulances are tied up at the hospital, often for hours at a stretch, because there are not enough beds to receive patients. This has a flow-on effect throughout the region, with ambulances being called upon from beyond the Shoalhaven to assist with our medical emergencies.
We have strived to be fair in our coverage, stressing that systemic problems in our health care system are at the heart of most of the problems we encounter.
Doctors and nurses are stretched; paramedics are too thin on the ground. This leads to decisions and diagnoses being made on the run, which can have catastrophic consequences.
Everyone in the Shoalhaven who has learned of the circumstances of little Kyran’s passing is be standing with Grant and Naomi as they seek answers and the coroner’s recommendations that will no doubt flow from the inquest.
If there is any good to come of this young family’s tragedy let’s hope it is an improved local health system that does not fail the people it is supposed to care for.