Anna Superina, 66, who died September 28 last year after Fairfield Hospital failed to diagnose her illness. Source: News Corp Australia
AS they waited in an ambulance, Anna Superina and her husband Joe were given a choice by paramedics: Fairfield Hospital or Liverpool Hospital.
Mr Superina chose Fairfield after being told it had a lighter workload than Liverpool, meaning doctors could examine her severe back pain and bout of vomiting more quickly, The Daily Telegraph reports.
But less than four hours after making that decision, Mrs Superina was dead.
She had passed out in the front seat of a car just 500m from the hospital she had just left after suffering an infra-renal ruptured aortic abdominal aneurysm — a tear in the main artery of her stomach.
It was just 45 minutes her hospital discharge. Doctors had not diagnosed her condition.
Instead because her blood pressure was falling, analgesics had eased her pain, and the provisional diagnosis was “muscular back pain”, they discharged her.
An internal report commissioned by the hospital found that had Mrs Superina, 66, chosen to go to Liverpool Hospital there was a higher likelihood she may have survived because of services available there.
“We feel robbed by the health system,” her daughter Jo Cutler said.
“We are still in the early stages of loss. If it was an accident, then of course there is still that loss, but at least we can make sense of that.”
Anna Superina’s family are struggling to come to terms with her death. (Front, Brooke Cutler and Liam Cutler, her husband Joe Superina, Claudia Superina. Back, Anthony Superina, Dean Superina and Melissa McColough) Picture: Bradley Hunter Source: News Corp Australia
Reforms have been brought in at Fairfield Hospital since the incident on September 28.
Barbara Chapman, Fairfield Hospital’s acting general manager, said the incident involving Mrs Superina was complex.
Her condition was not only difficult to detect, but also prone to develop without symptoms.
“Following the review, staff have been provided with further education around abdominal aortic aneurisms and complex abdominal examinations,” Ms Barbara Chapman said.
The incident unfolded about 5am after a bout of vomiting and severe back pain.
Anna Superina and her grieving husband Joe. Source: Supplied
The Superinas called an ambulance, which arrived at 5.15am. They reached Fairfield Hospital at 6.10am.
At 8.25am doctors discharged Mrs Superina. Within 15 minutes, the mother of four and grandmother of six from Cabramatta West had slumped over inside her car, just 500m from the hospital.
After being rushed back to hospital, she was pronounced dead by staff at 9.10am.
Ms Cutler said Mr Superina is suffering most.
“He is carrying that guilt of ‘if I had chosen Liverpool maybe my wife would still be alive today’,” she said.
“He did not know that Fairfield did not have services that mum required.”
Along with an internal hospital report, a separate independent report was conducted for the coroner.
It found that had Mrs Superina gone to Liverpool Hospital, which has a vascular surgery service, the “likelihood of survival would have been about 50 per cent.”
Such a service could have resuscitated her, taken her to an operating theatre immediately, where doctors would have tried to stem the bleeding into the abdominal cavity and repair the 50mm tear in the wall of the artery.
An ambulance spokeswoman said paramedics always transported patients to the nearest, appropriate hospital that was considered the best suited to treat the patient’s condition.
Mrs Cutler said residents of Sydney were being subjected to a “postcode lottery” because certain hospitals, such as Fairfield, had been ill-equipped to deal with medical scenarios like the one faced by her mother.
source:news.com.au
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 