Breaking News
Justice for her brother
Friday 25 April, 2008 12:01am
AFTER five years of fighting, Kim McCall can finally see a chance to get justice for her dead brother, Wayne Brown.
She already felt better after telling his story to barrister Peter Garling SC at the special commission of inquiry into acute care services in NSW public hospitals earlier this month, she said.
Ms McCall, of Werrington Downs, told the inquiry Mr Brown, of St Marys, died on December 14, 2003, aged 39 in transit from Concord to Blacktown hospitals.
She blamed a lack of communication, inexperienced doctors and shoddy paperwork.
Ms McCall told the inquiry that Mr Brown suffered kidney failure.
The events which led to his sudden death began when he was discharged from Concord Hospital. Although he arrived there in an ambulance, Mr Brown was told to make his own way home to St Marys, she said.
He was then expected to return to Concord the next day for further treatment, she said.
She found him lying semi-conscious the next day at home after he failed to turn up at Concord Hospital. Mr Brown was taken to Blacktown Hospital by ambulance.
However, medical staff there did not know Mr Brown's medical history nor how to treat him because his files were not passed on from Concord for four or five hours, Ms McCall told the inquiry.
It was later discovered that paperwork at Blacktown had not been entered into proper medical files and some had not been completed.
The family later learned that doctors on duty at the time were junior and inexperienced and were working unsupervised.
They did not contact the on-call senior doctor for advice, Ms McCall said.
The doctors at Blacktown were happy with his condition and sent him to Concord, she said. However, Mr Brown died in transit in an ambulance.
A coronial inquest into his death also found discrepancies in medical information, she said.
Ms McCall said she was happy with the commissioner's promise to refer the case back to the Health Care Complaints Commission.
"Finally something is being done," she said outside the inquiry. "My brother should still be alive today."
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