WA: Staff error blamed for "dead boy not being revived

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2000
WA: Staff error blamed for "dead boy not being revived

West Australian Health Minister JOHN DAY says staff at a Perth hospital made an error
of judgment in stopping resuscitation efforts on a two-year-old boy presumed dead but
later found alive.

The toddler was taken to Joondalup Health Campus on August 13 after falling into a
backyard swimming pool.

His father and ambulance officers tried to resuscitate him for 30 minutes, and efforts
continued for a further 40 minutes at the hospital until doctors eventually pronounced
him dead.

An hour later, when coronial police arrived to confirm the death, the boy had started
breathing again.

Mr DAY says an inquiry has found the child's body had warmed up sufficiently for him
to start breathing again, but hospital staff had failed to check the boy's core temperature
during resuscitation.

He says the omission can be explained by a tendency in a stressful situation to focus
entirely on the actual resuscitation itself, rather than taking into account other factors
such as hypothermia.





The inquiry recommends that the skills, training and experience of hospital staff be
reviewed, and improved drug dispensing and patient drug administration systems be introduced.

It also recommends that consideration be given to making core temperature readings
compulsory in near-drowning incidents.

AAP RTV alm/sd/smf/jn

KEYWORD: RESUSCITATE (PERTH)

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