Chandra Lanka is still haunted by his daughter’s words on the evening before she died.
While eight-year-old Amrita Lanka was struggling to breathe at Monash children’s hospital, she told her mother, Satya Tarapureddi: “You are not doing anything. I am not able to breathe. If dad was here, he would have done something.”
Lanka said his wife had “fought until the very end” for their daughter.
“No child should have said that,” he said.
“I did exactly as she expected me to do – fight for her. Unfortunately, that was after her death.”
Lanka died on 30 April 2022, about 21 hours after arriving at hospital, from myocarditis – an inflammation of the heart muscle. The Victorian deputy state coroner this week held an inquest into Lanka’s death and the care provided by the hospital.
Amrita’s parents read their impact statements at the inquest on Friday afternoon.
Lanka told the court Amrita was a “healthy and happy girl” who loved animals, doing artwork and was proud to be Australian. Through tears, he said she enjoyed his bedtime stories.
Lanka told the court he told Amrita “one final bedtime story” after she died in hospital.
Lanka said the Victorian escalation scheme – announced last year to help parents advocate for sick children in hospital – should be named after Amrita.
Tarapureddi told the court it was the happiest day of her life when she held Amrita in her arms for the first time.
“She was very smart, caring and the centre of our universe,” she said.
A life without her daughter was a “life sentence of misery”, Tarapureddi said.
She recalled the impact on her son, who is a year older than Amrita, saying he was “deeply affected by losing his best friend and sister”.
Tarapureddi said the inquest was “proof that I did everything I could to save you that night”.
Amrita had been suffering stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhoea for two days when her GP referred her to the hospital’s emergency department the day before her death, with suspected appendicitis, the court heard earlier this week.
After Amrita arrived at the hospital in the afternoon on 29 April 2022, hospital staff performed an ultrasound that ruled out appendicitis. The family was told their daughter was suffering from gastro and she was given IV fluids.
Due to Covid restrictions, hospital policy meant only one parent was able to be with their child, the inquest heard on Monday.
Tarapureddi told the court on Monday that her pleas for help were ignored by hospital staff as her daughter’s condition deteriorated. She recalled pressing an emergency assistance button, as instructed by staff, at least seven times, waiting more than 30 minutes on some occasions for a response.
She also recalled pleading with nurses and doctors for help as her daughter reported she was struggling to breathe, shortly before 10pm on the evening before her death.
Dr Patrick Tan, the clinical registrar in charge of the emergency department that night, told the inquest earlier this week that an ECG performed on Lanka at about 3.30am on the day of her death showed abnormal results. Tan said at the time he did not recognise the severity of the abnormality.
Amrita went into cardiac arrest around 7.30am on 30 April 2022, the court heard.
Earlier this week, representatives for Monash Health admitted at the inquest that there were failings in Amrita’s care.
Fiona Ellis, appearing on behalf of Monash Health, said Amrita’s blood pressure should have been monitored more regularly and that results of her blood tests required that her care be quickly escalated.
The Victorian deputy state coroner, Paresa Spanos, is examining whether the care Amrita received was reasonable, whether the concerns raised by her family were responded to adequately by hospital staff and if resource constraints were a factor in her death.
Parties will make submissions to Spanos before she makes findings and potential recommendations.
