A Sydney family has accused Northern Beaches hospital of having “failed at every level” after their two-year-old waited in the emergency department for three hours before suffering a cardiac arrest and dying.
Joe Massa was a month away from celebrating his second birthday when his mother, Elouise, took him to Northern Beaches hospital’s emergency department at 7am on 14 September 2024.
Elouise told 2GB her son had vomited an hour prior, and become pale and unresponsive. In a statement, the family said their son had been suffering from significant hypovolemia, a condition that occurs when the body loses too much fluid.
His family said the healthcare professionals should have activated a rapid response pathway, which would have seen their son transferred to a resuscitation or paediatric bed and reviewed within 10 minutes by senior doctors.
Instead, for more than three hours, Elouise claimed the hospital appeared to ignore Joe’s increasing heart rate, limpness, rash and loss of consciousness.
She said she requested an IV drip three times but was not given one.
At 9.40am, Elouise said she screamed “my son has gone blind” as Joe’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, but claimed the hospital didn’t act on the signs of pre-cardiac distress including agitation, pallor, breathing difficulty, losing consciousness, a blotchy rash appearing across his entire body and an enlarged stomach.
After Joe’s eyes rolled back the toddler was given a bed but was not connected to any monitoring equipment, she said.
At 10.47am Elouise claimed they were alone, unattended by medical staff, when Joe suffered a catastrophic cardiac arrest. The two-year-old’s life support was withdrawn two days later.
In a statement, Joe’s parents said “our son should be here today”.
“He had his whole life ahead of him, and we trusted Northern Beaches hospital to provide the care he needed. Instead, he was failed at every level.”
The emergency department is operated by the private hospital provider Healthscope in a public-private partnership (PPP).
The Massa family have called for an independent review into the hospital’s emergency department and for the NSW government to re-evaluate its contract with Healthscope and ensure that private operators prioritise patient safety over profit.
The family claimed that a Serious Adverse Event Review (SAER) conducted under the NSW Incident Management Policy confirmed multiple failures.
Chris Minns said the health minister, Ryan Park, will meet with the family on Thursday. Premier Minns vowed that he would “do anything we can to ensure that they get answers as to what happened”.
“I’m profoundly sorry that this has happened. It’s absolutely heartbreaking. I think it’s every parent’s worst nightmare. I can only imagine the pain that they’re going through,” Minns said.
In a statement, Healthscope said: “Northern Beaches hospital offers its deepest condolences to the Massa family for the loss of their son, Joe. We recognise Joe’s death has caused unimaginable heartache and grief for the family.”
“We have met with the family to apologise and hear directly about their tragic experience and to discuss the findings of the Serious Adverse Event Review.
“We will continue to support the family in any way that we can as we implement the improvements identified in the review, including improvements around triaging processes and internal escalation processes.”
