'We're lucky she's still here': Family finds horrifying X-ray after hospital turns away 1-yr-old
QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA: A Queensland family revealed that the local hospital has let them down after they failed to find the button battery swallowed by their one-year-old. Amity Buchanan's parents, Jemma and Daniel Buchanan took her to Mackay Base Hospital when she started choking and throwing up, fearing she had ingested a harmful foreign object, on Monday, March 13. However, the hospital refused to take in the infant claiming that beds weren't available after a doctor reportedly checked Amity with a stethoscope and said that her airways were clear.
"We were seen by the doctor who put his stethoscope on to check her airways and that was it. After the airways were clear, he said her behavior was fine and she looked fine so she was fine to go home because they were busy," Jemma told Sunrise on Thursday morning. The concerned family persisted in taking their daughter to an emergency room after her condition started worsening and that's when they discovered a potentially dangerous lethal battery inside the infant's throat, 7 News reported.
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'Beyond incompetent'
Despite the fact that they delayed the discovery, the parents still have to wait for a long time for their daughter to be treated. “We waited 15 minutes knowing that my daughter has a battery in her throat,” Daniel told 7News, "The neglect there is just absolutely ridiculous.” The hospital’s actions are “beyond incompetent”, Amity’s grandad Jal told the outlet. “That’s neglect,” he added.
Nevertheless, the harm had already been done; the one-year-old now has an eight-centimeter burn in her throat. The infant was transferred to another hospital where surgeons conducted surgery to remove the button battery. Her status is being monitored and more scans are being performed while she is in an artificially induced coma. Doctors are also concerned about the risk of infection. Jemma and Daniel's grief is made worse by their rage toward the medical staff since they believe they were slow to respond to their worries. “She’s in the wars at the moment,” Daniel said. “Only time will tell how she comes out of it,” he added.
Follow your 'mother's instinct'
“I’m just beyond angry, what’s it going to take?” Daniel said to 7 News. “If (the doctor) had just done the X-ray then and there, she’d probably be her happy and healthy self at home right now.” Jemma cautioned other parents to follow their "mother's instinct" when it comes to their child's health in an interview with Sunrise on Thursday morning. "Just trust it and do not be scared to fight for your child. It does not matter," she said, before adding, "Just use your instincts to give your child the best can you possibly can. That is all you can do." The family has set up a GoFundMe for financial aid.
Hospital responded
Sharon Walsh, the chief operating officer of Mackay Base Hospital, told 7 News that the Mackay Hospital and Health Service is "reviewing" Amity's presentation to the emergency department at Mackay Base Hospital this week. “I would like to reassure the community we are committed to patient safety,” she said. “Information provided to the hospital was that a polystyrene bean had been swallowed, and this would not have shown up in an X-ray. We do not routinely perform medical imaging on children who have swallowed a radiotransparent foreign body if their clinical presentation is normal. As always, we ask patients to represent if they develop new symptoms or if their condition deteriorates. On behalf of the health service, I would like to wish Amity and her family all the best as she recovers.”