The parents of a toddler who died at Joondalup Health Campus are planning to lodge complaints against several doctors and nurses who allegedly ignored their repeated requests for a blood test which could have saved his life.
Sandipan Dhar died in the hospital on March 24, just before his second birthday and more than one month after he began suffering a long-running mild fever following routine vaccinations.
Sanjoy Dhar’s son died at Joondalup Health Campus in March.Credit: 9 News Perth
His parents claimed they took their son to the GP four times, and the hospital twice in that time before a hospital X-ray revealed he had pneumonia.
By that stage, it was too late to save his life, with a post-mortem revealing the boy was also suffering from undiagnosed leukemia, or blood cancer.
After reading an initial review by the hospital into the care Sandipan received, his father Sanjoy Dhar told media on Wednesday there was a “huge possibility” his son would still be with him today if he had received a blood test during his first visit to Joondalup Health Campus.
He said that after a local GP clinic repeatedly ignored his request for his son to receive a blood test, one of the GPs wrote a referral letter to the hospital, which included a blood test request, but the emergency department doctor overrode the request after just “15 minutes”.
“I’m telling it very clearly that we requested a blood test minimum three times on that day in hospital,” he said.
“Even for the sake of argument that we didn’t request, we had a written referral that clearly mentioned a blood test, and they’ve overridden that.”
Dhar is fighting for justice for his son, and believes the medical professionals involved in his care should be held accountable.
“To me, the main problems start from the [GP clinic], I do not excuse the hospital, but [the GP clinic] spent more than five weeks with Sandipan, and ignored our requests again and again.
“We had seen minimum three GPs on four occasions, so every single person is liable for this.”
Sandipan Dhar died aged 21 months.
Ramsay Health Care, who runs Joondalup Health Campus, have announced an internal and external investigation into the death.
The coroner will also investigate.
Former UWA paediatric oncology professor Dr Catherine Cole said there appeared to be opportunities where a diagnosis could have been made sooner.
Dhar said his family would seek out any legal means possible, including lodging individual complaints with the medical watchdog, AHPRA.
“Previously, we thought if anything goes wrong, we should go see and doctor, and it will be all right,” he said.
“A child who is passing away at two years old, it’s too hard.”