A teenage girl was given Panadol by the hospital and sent home on multiple occasions before succumbing to a serious heart condition that went untreated, has revealed.
Yvette “Betty” Booth was just 18 when she died from rheumatic heart disease (RHD) – a rare heart condition that in Australia occurs almost exclusively in remote indigenous communities.
Ms Booth attended the town of Doomadgee’s hospital emergency department, in remote Far North Queensland, 12 times in under two months.
Despite needing weekly check-ups and urgent surgery, the teenager was on some occasions, given Panadol through a security window and told to go home.
“We know that it‘s not the right treatment, but unfortunately, Panadol’s easy to give out, so you know, people will get the Panadol and we’ll say, ‘oh, that’s the shut-up pill’,” Director of lobby group RHD Australia, Vicki Wade said.
Paediatric cardiologist, Bo Remenyi visited Doomadgee in July 2019 to screen children for RHD and diagnosed Ms Booth with a severe case of the disease.
Her team left detailed instructions regarding Ms Booth’s care with multiple health bodies, including that she needed urgent surgery to repair the valves in her heart.
However, reported that no record of her illness was kept on Doomadgee Hospital’s file.
Just four days after her diagnosis, Ms Booth presented at the hospital at 11pm with a cough, fever and vomiting. She was given Panadol and treatment for dehydration and told to come back in the morning.
Ms Remenyi said it was common for patients who present on weekends or after hours, to be assessed through a locked security screen.
“The conversation takes place over a cage, without actually touching the patient or examining the patient or giving that real opportunity to discuss the symptoms,” she said.
“How many times can you present, with the same symptoms, pressing symptoms, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, tachycardia, and each time the outcome is not different?”
In September 2019, Ms Booth again became seriously ill and returned to the hospital. Due to there being no record of her illness on file, Ms Booth was kept waiting for several hours while her condition deteriorated.
Staff determined she should be flown to a larger hospital for treatment, however, they categorised her as “low dependency”. An hour later, a plane was ordered from Townsville, rather than from the closer large hospital in Mount Isa.
xjmtzywRelative of Ms Booth, Marilyn Haala and her husband Clennon Bob were not allowed in the hospital to see the girl as she awaited transfer.
“No-one would let me go in, even the nurse or the doctors,” Mr Bob says.
By the time the plane landed in Doomadgee, Ms Booth had been dead for almost two hours.
“[The] doctor that was treating her, came out and gave us the bad news: Betty didn‘t make it,” Mr Bob says, slowly shaking his head.
Within a year of Ms Booth’s death, two other women died of RHD after seeking treatment at Doomadgee hospital. One of them was 17-year old Shakaya George, the other was her aunt, Adele Sandy.
Ms Haala said the system needs to drastically change if the deaths of more young people with RHD are to be avoided.
“Because what they did there, they just going to keep killing people,” she said.
“[It feels] like they treat us like animals. They going to keep killing them. And get away with it.”
