KEY POINTS:
Wanganui Hospital is investigating a misdiagnosis which saw a toddler with meningococcal septicaemia sent home, where he died within a day.
Jarius William Tobin Field, aged 23 months, died less than a week before his second birthday on October 24 - the day after his parents took him to the hospital's emergency department.
A paediatric specialist diagnosed him as having a viral infection and flea bites and sent him home.
The boy's 18-year old mother Waiana Tobin told TV One's Close Up programme last night she blamed the hospital for his death.
"It's a straight misdiagnosis. I just want them to acknowledge what they've done wrong and take it into account," she said.
She said the doctor who made the diagnosis failed to read notes made by another doctor who first saw Jarius, and failed to carry out basic tests that might have better indicated what the toddler was suffering from.
New hospital chief executive Julie Patterson told The Dominion Post and Wanganui Chronicle newspapers that staff were devastated.
"Their little boy has died. For that we apologise."
Wanganui District Health Board was investigating.
Paediatrician David Montgomery said meningococcal disease was "extremely hard" to diagnose as the symptoms in the early stages often mimicked less deadly viral illnesses.
Dr Montgomery said there were no tests to say immediately if a child had a viral illness or meningococcal disease.
"In this case, the diagnosis was made even more difficult by the fact that Jarius appeared to be improving over the period of about three hours from the time he arrived at the hospital to the time he left, when he was smiling, chatting, and walking around. This improvement reassured the paediatrician that all was well."
He said the diagnosis of flea bites was made by a senior, well qualified paediatrician who had been satisfied the symptoms displayed by Jarius at the time did not indicate meningococcal disease.
"I have given the family my personal commitment that the investigation will be thorough and truthful," Dr Montgomery said.
Wanganui Hospital's reputation has been under fire after cancer patients did not get referrals, a disgraced gynaecologist Roman Hasil botched sterilisation operations and medication errors were found to be a factor in the death of a Canadian man.
No complaint had been lodged with the Health and Disability Commissioner.
- NZPA
