Add Category
Updated
A father has broken down while giving evidence about the death of his newborn daughter at Fairfield Hospital in November 2014.
Sam Amone cried as he remembered how his baby girl struggled to breathe about 15-20 minutes after her birth.
"Her breathing seemed short as if she was gasping for air," he told the coronial inquest into her death.
It was not the only problem that day.
Mr Amone and his wife Sharon were left alone in the birthing suite to deliver their daughter, Manusiu.
With the baby coming, Mr Amone's rang the buzzer for assistance repeatedly then ran into the hallway yelling to raise the alarm and telling his wife "just hang in there".
When obstetrics and gynaecology registrar Dr Chee Tan arrived the baby's body was almost completely delivered.
His first job was to remove the umbilical cord which was wrapped tightly around the baby's neck.
He could not say for how long the baby's head had been delivered.
The adequacy of staffing at Fairfield Hospital that day is one of the issues being examined by the inquest.
Dr Tan told the inquest "usually they [the nurses] are understaffed".
"I've been doing nights at Fairfield for a few years, so usually if there's a complications patient, there won't be enough staff the handle the workload generally," Dt tan said.
Toxic effects of pethidine painkiller examined at inquest
Another key issue is the role the painkiller pethidine played in the death of Manusiu.
An autopsy concluded Manusiu's death was mostly due to the toxic effects of pethidine, although the inquest will hear expert evidence on whether the baby had underlying respiratory issues as well.
The inquest was told by two doctors that pethidine is normally not given in the second stage of birth — when a mother is pushing the baby out — because it could suppress the baby's breathing.
Mrs Amone was given the pain relief about an hour before the birth, but a drug to reverse the effects of the pethidine, Narcan, was not given to the baby until she developed breathing difficulties.
The mother of three told the inquest she agreed to the pethidine on the basis that a nurse would be on hand to administer the narcan to her baby immediately after the birth.
A lawyer for the South West Sydney Local Health District extended condolences to the family.
He told the inquest the Health District acknowledged "aspects of the [Amone family's] care were deficient".
The Health District will also give evidence on the changes that have been made at Fairfield Hospital since the incident.
Health is a challenging area, says health minister
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he could not comment on details because of the ongoing inquest, however he said there had "been some learnings already from that very sad incident".
"I want to express my sympathy to the family," he said.
"I can assure the family of that youngster that the NSW Health Department has done everything they can to date by their own assessment of what actually went wrong and making sure that it won't happen again.
"Having said that, unfortunately health is a challenging area, we're always working with a range of children and adults who have often great difficulties.
"I don't think it's ever possible in any health system in the world to guarantee absolutely that it won't happen again, but I can say that I've ... directed the Health Department to do everything they can do in advance of the Coroner's hearing to make sure they address the issues."
Topics: law-crime-and-justice, babies---newborns, healthcare-facilities, fairfield-2165, sydney-2000, nsw
First posted