3 December 2009

1 of 4 babies exposed to TB dies

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ABC Online and the Canberra Times are carrying the tragic story of a 14 week old baby boy, Douglas ”DJ” Franco-Gill, who died weeks after being exposed to Tubercilosis when an undiagnosed carrier, the father of another of the child, was allowed to stay overnight in the Canberra Hospital’s antenatal unit back in September. DJ was was born 10 weeks premature. He was one of four newborn babies in the antenatal unit at the time of the exposure.

Questions have been raised regarding hospital proceedures, ACT Health’s responce to the parents concerns and the cause of the child’s death (a coronial investigation has been called).

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Oh, God, I would never go back to Calvary public for maternity. Twice is two times too often. I would certainly go back to TCH.

So are husbands allowed to stay or not?

We are talking about the antenatal ward not postnatal, alot of the patients are there for considerable time and while my wife was there several partners stayed overnight for emotional support in what can be a very difficult and stressful situation

I was pretty unimpressed with Calvary public a few years ago. Tiles falling off the bathroom wall, and a drafty window next to the bed so I had to wear my dressing gown all night to stay warm.

I’ve also heard really good things about TCH. At least they only have rooms for two women, not four together like Calvary.

I think both of them have good and bad points, and mostly both are fine until they get really busy, when things start to deteriorate.

I hope a few more facts come out about this very sad case. Surely a baby in a humidicrib couldn’t have been in a normal ward room anyway. I just feel so incredibly sorry for the parents, and also for the other parents who are still waiting on results about their little babies.

The fact there is a possibility of the baby’s death being linked to a TB case resulting from uncertain hospital policy means that the media (and hence all of us) would and should be taking notice.

I saw in a new article in the CT that the doctor with her newborn who was sharing the room with the TB case is concerned that the TB drugs the babies were taking could have been related to the death of Douglas. They would be very strong antibiotics and on a susceptible system (with the baby being 10 weeks premature) might have put extra stress on the poor little fellow’s body.

My sincere condolences to the parents and family of the baby. That said, was the death of this child related to TB in any way? Until that link is made, its a media beat up. Sure, anyone with TB shouldn’t have been there in the first place. But how would hospitals police this? Test everyone who wants to visit a patient?

TCH is staffed with doctors and nurses who take their jobs very seriously. I’ve seen first hand their care and dedication in the neonatal intensive care ward. There is no way they would knowingly put a child in harms way.

Skidbladnir said :

Trained medical professionals did their analysis & risk profiling, and said 4 babies and a whole pile of adults, were all at risk of contracting tuberculosis.

That’s not the issue. The reason the child died is that he was not given care appropriate to a TB case – the CT story recounts how the health care professionals involved claimed that the child’s problem was simply reflux.

The issue is not that a father was allowed to stay in the antenatal unit with his partner and child. If we pursue that line of thought, you’ll have nurses working overtime to eject people from the antenatal unit simply because they blow their nose or clear their throats.

The issue from what little information is presented to us seems to be that people need to learn to get multiple opinions. If they don’t believe that a child’s coughing up white-flecked sputum is simply reflux, they need to know that you won’t get struck by lightning if you go to other doctors and get second or third opinions.

The father’s “undiagnosed TB” might easily have been explained as “smoker’s cough”. The other three children aren’t reported to be having problems, so the notification of the exposure in the media seems to be a beat-up by some journalist pushing an agenda (when is a journalist not pushing an agenda). Yes, the health system has problems, but the problems won’t be solved by overreacting and forming a lynch mob every time a premature baby dies.

Someone’s baby died. Let the grieve, let the officials involved get on with figuring out what happened and whether there’s a sensible course of action (ie: something that doesn’t involve keeping new babies in bubbles separated from the rest of the world for three weeks) that could have prevented the death.

Media circuses are only about trying to get the incumbent out so some new person can have their turn at messing things up.

So are husbands allowed to stay or not?

At Calvary Public you are told that husbands are not allowed to stay, and there is only and office type visitor chair next to the bed. This is in rooms with 4 patients (quite small rooms too). With one toilet.

One partner did stay for the first night with his wife. He was quiet, and I assume the staff didn’t notice him, or turned a blind eye. However we were certainly told partners could not stay.

So are partners actually encouraged to stay at TCH antenatal, or not?

One newspaper report early on quoted a new mother as saying she complained about the man staying, and got herself and her baby moved to another room after one night. Incidentally she was a dr. It didn’t say why she complained though – I wonder if he was coughing all night, or just disruptive in some other way. Or if she just felt fathers should not stay in shared rooms.

As to the exposure. Of course they may have still be exposed if he had just visited at visiting hours. Nevertheless I would rather be around someone with TB for a few hours than overnight. And if the overnight exposure was against hospital rules, then TCH is open to being sued I would think.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Glad I’m having my baby at Calvery…

Because nothing bad ever happens to anybody in private hospitals.

Calvary has public maternity as well, it isn’t just private maternity there.

I know many women who have had babies both public and private at Calvary and public at TCH and the only people who has issues with the hospital were at TCH. TCH might have a fab neonatal intensive care unit but by all accounts their general maternity leaves a lot to be desired. Plus would you want to have your baby at a hospital with recent TB cases? I’d rather fork out the cash to get a private room in another hospital where I know I’m not going to have stranger who may or may not be sick sharing my room unauthorised

R.I.P DOUGLAS JEFFERY “DJ” FRANCO GILL. Our little soldier!

dj,s full name is douglas jeffery franco-gill

TCH is disgusting, I was there a few years ago with a few broken bones and I ended up leaving half way through recovery because the state of their bathrooms/toilets are disgraceful. I constantly had stomach bugs and chucked every time I went in there. I witnessed a hospital cleaner clean a shared bathroom in a ward once every 3/4 days!!
I now have health insurance and swear to this day I will never enter that hospital again.

My son was born at TCH and was in the Neonatal intensive care unit next to DJ, I have nothing but total respect for the fantastic and caring staff at TCH, everyone we had contact with did a brilliant job. The rooms in Ante Natal which are on the floor below and have single seat lounge chairs that fold out to a bed for partners to stay overnight. The only complaint I have is the terrible parking.

Don’t go to the press they are A1 arseholes!

What’s the difference if he stayed over night or not? Surely the unfortunate baby who died could just as easily come to the same grief from a 15 minute visit. I sure hop husbands aren’t thrown out of hospitals because of some poor tragedy.

But if the father was undiagnosed, how might this be avoided? What would have happened if the mother had undiagnosed TB and passed it on?

It would also be nice if the poor child could be known by his name rather than “DJ”.

No, junkett, we should not leave it alone. This is a public health issue and one that is important to us.

Don’t even think about censoring poeple who have concerns about our (deteriorating) health system, and even more concerns about our (deteriorating) health minister.

Oh, FFS! We don’t live third world here as far as health care goes. As much as I hate the Labor party, don’t take press articles as gospel. Even the Beaker (“all hale the Beaker”) Stanhope can’t stop tragic events.

As always there will be more to the story that we will not and should not hear about (despite all Waterford’s very public postulating “our right to know”).

This is a shit of a time for the parents even if going straight to the press was a very bad move. Leave it alone.

A sad case much like many others every week that are grieved in private.

However with the opportunity for sensationalism by the CT and political mileage by MLAs, this poor child and his parents’ grief is laid bare in the most exploitative way.

Is the death in any way related to TB?

No but that would make a far less interesting story.

Funny thing, today we get news of a child dying, and Katy’s office punps out media releases telling us all how well the health portfoliio is doing.

Woody Mann-Caruso5:20 pm 03 Dec 09

Glad I’m having my baby at Calvery…

Because nothing bad ever happens to anybody in private hospitals.

(Maybe you can send the baby to a private school. That way, your grandchildren can be born fighting on horseback, or maybe in a restaurant that serves cooked meats sliced to order.)

Grail:
Then again, its not like he deliberately their humidicribs and spat onto the children while they slept.
Trained medical professionals did their analysis & risk profiling, and said 4 babies and a whole pile of adults, were all at risk of contracting tuberculosis.

I am assuming 1) the medical staff were at least able to do their risk assessments competently and in accordance with their training, and 2) you aren’t one of those medical professional involved, since you’re commenting here.

That he was in a maternity room overnight is almost a side issue to others being in enclosed public spaces overnight with a contagious tuberculosis case.
It is still an issue, in that most postnatal mothers prefer having time to deal with the baby in their own way, and nurses have other duties to attend to instead of catering to the needs\wants\wishes of any new fathers hang around on ward after hours.

sepi – these babies came “into contact” with the guy the same way they come “into contact” with dozens of other concerned fathers who stay overnight against the protocols.

Is there any indication that the TB would not have been spread if the guy had actually left and only spent a few hours there during the day? It’s not like TB only infects people at night, unless I’ve missed the memo.

There’s also a huge difference between “four babies were in the antenatal unit at the time” versus “four babies were potentially infected with TB.” If they were premature, one presumes they’d have been in humidicribs, and at the very least I’d assume that all four babies were not in the one two-person room overnight.

The news have been trying to beat up this story over the past couple of weeks. Something is missing. The Times were beating up that he was allowed to stay not that he had TB. The cause of death for the poor baby that died has not been linked to TB as yet. With such little information all I see is a media and political circus.

As for the man staying overnight, maybe the nurses were showing some compassion and had no reason to suspect his illness. As for being exposed, health/infection guidelines would define contact in a wide manner so it would not necessarily be in the first person. He could just have been in the same area or rooms as the babies and health authorities are being catious by treating the babies as if they had been fully exposed. They would be damned if they ignored the chance of an infection and something happened.

The ill man stayed overnight with his wife in a two person room, which is not supposed to be allowed. Although someone’s husband stayed overnight in the chair by the bed when I was in a public maternity ward too.

They tell you it is not permitted, but perhaps their ‘policy’ allows for this to happen if the person is being quiet.

I still don’t understand how so many babies came into contact with this man. Especially premature ones.

It is so very very sad.

Three weeks ago the ACT Chief Medical Officer said there may have been a breach, and Departmental investigations were continuing.
Later that same day the Health Minister’s spokesperson strangely announced that there was no breach of policy, going so far to say that as such there was no need for a departmental inquiry.

While currently just media reports that the Minister mislead the public about her department, potential risks to health, and the potential impact on those affected, but I guess she could just wait until a coronial inquiry confirms it into the legal finding.

Will she fight the coroner, like the Chief Minister did?

Bluenomi said :

Glad I’m having my baby at Calvery…

You’re having your baby at a Calvery?

Cows are on teh internets now?

Glad I’m having my baby at Calvery…

amarooresident22:55 pm 03 Dec 09

If the guy was undiagnosed and no-one knew he had TB how were they supposed to stop him? Or was he coughing and all over the place?

What I can’t understand is the way in which Katie Gallagher blithely and very condescendingly supported TCH’s policy on this. Surely she knew that there were risks to vulnerable babies in the antenatal unit, yet she treated the whole episode as being something of no concern.

Perhaps now Dr Guest and his cohorts in the hospital system will start to take the concerns of parents a lot more seriously and do something about these protocols. And perhaps our Health Minister will stop being so patronising and contemptuous of people’s legitimate complaints.

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