The mother of an eight-year-old Melbourne girl who died less than a day after presenting at Monash children’s hospital with stomach pain pressed a call button at least seven time as her daughter’s condition deteriorated, an inquest has heard.
Amrita Varshini Lanka died from myocarditis – an inflammation of the heart muscle – on 30 April 2022, 21 hours after arriving at the hospital in Melbourne’s south-east.
She 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 Victorian deputy state coroner, Paresa Spanos, is examining whether the care Lanka receive 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.
About 9pm on the day before her death, hospital staff performed an ultrasound on Lanka which ruled out appendicitis. The family was told their daughter was suffering from gastro and she was given IV fluids.
Lanka’s mother, Satya Tarapureddi, told the court she had then pleaded with nurses and doctors for help as her daughter reported she was struggling to breathe shortly before 10pm.
Under questioning by the family’s barrister Paul Halley, Tarapureddi, said she had rung the call button at least seven times while Lanka was in hospital and waited for more than 30 minutes on one occasion.
“I was just waiting for help,” she said. “But nobody came. Each and every time I pressed the button, it happened the same thing.”
Wiping tears from her eyes, Tarapureddi said it was “very hard” to lose a daughter. “They just ignored her,” she said.
Lanka’s father, Chandra Lanka, sat in the front row of the coroner’s court and held a portrait of his daughter.
Tarapureddi said the only instruction given to her by a nurse at the hospital was to press the button if she required assistance. At one point, after receiving no assistance, she resorted to asking a cleaner passing by if the button was working. She was told it was, the court heard.
About 3am on the morning of her death, Tarapureddi said Dr Patrick Tan had told her Lanka could be taken off fluids and discharged. Tarapureddi questioned this and said Lanka was still complaining about her breathing, the court heard.
“I said there would be no point in us going home because I would need to bring her back,” she said.
About 3.30am, a nurse performed an ECG – to record the electrical signals in the heart – on Lanka.
Dr Tan, who also gave evidence on Monday, said he assessed Lanka’s ECG report and believed it was “not a significant abnormality”.
He acknowledged he did not recognise the clinical significance of the ECG report or severity of the condition, noting he had encountered myocarditis only 10 times prior to Lanka.
Tan said he may have told Tarapureddi that Lanka’s ECG was “all good”, as she had testified earlier, in an attempt to reassure her, but could not recall the interaction with certainty.
He said this could have been in regards to the rate her heart was pumping which was “normal”.
Under questioning by Halley, Tan agreed that if he was uncertain about the ECG results, he should have shown the report to the paediatric cardiologist.
Tan said despite Tarapureddi’s evidence that she told staff about her daughter struggling with breathing, this information was not passed onto him.
Between 3.30am and 6am, Lanka was not attended to by any doctor, the court heard.
She was moved into a short-stay room about 6am when a nurse informed her family she was in a critical condition, the court heard.
Lanka went into cardiac arrest around 7.30am on 30 April 2022, the court heard.
Fiona Ellis, appearing on behalf of Monash Health, said Lanka’s blood pressure should have been monitored more regularly.
The inquest is expected to conclude on Friday.
