A Queensland hospital has been accused of failing to detect a button battery lodged in a one-year-old girl’s throat, leaving her in an induced coma suffering from internal burns to her oesophagus.
Parents Daniel Buchanan and Jemma Gultzow rushed their daughter Amity to Mackay hospital, after suspecting that she had swallowed a polystyrene bean on Monday afternoon while she was vomiting and choking.
A doctor checked Amity over with a stethoscope before sending the little girl home without an X-ray, with her parents led to believe she had a stomach bug.
Back home, Amity’s condition continued to deteriorate, so they took her to the GP, who told them to go straight to the emergency room,
‘We were given a referral from our GP, and we presented to the triage in emergency, and we were told to sit down,’ Ms Gultzow told Sunrise on Thursday.
‘We were standing at the doors thinking they would come straight away, but we were waiting and waiting and waiting.
‘We kept having to fight and fight for her to have any type of X-ray or care.’
Mackay toddler Amity Buchanan swallowed a button battery earlier this week
Doctors in the emergency room finally took an X-Ray of the little girl, and a battery was found lodged in her throat.
By then, the lodged battery caused an 8cm acid burn in Amity’s throat. She was rushed to Townsville Hospital for a two-hour operation to remove it before being airlifted to Brisbane Hospital.
Amity was placed in an induced coma, and is being fed through a tube.
Mr Buchanan says his little girl could have avoided all the suffering had the X-ray been done when they first presented Amity on Monday.
‘If (the doctor) had just done the X-ray then and there, she’d probably be her happy and healthy self at home right now,’ Mr Buchanan said.
‘She’s in the wars at the moment. Only time will tell when she comes out of it.’
‘I’m beyond angry. What’s it going to take?’
Amity Buchanan is in an induced coma and is expected to remain on a feeding tube for weeks
Ms Gultzow gave an update on Amity’s condition in Brisbane on Thursday morning.
‘She is stable, but she is in an induced coma to give her throat time to heal, protect her airways, and be as safe as possible,’ she told Sunrise.
Ms Lang pleaded with other parents to trust their intuition when their child is sick and fight for the care they deserve.
‘Just trust it, and do not be scared to fight for your child. It does not matter, just use your instincts to give your child the best can you possibly can. That is all you can do.’
Jemma Gultzow and Daniel Buchanan (pictured with baby Amity) are now speaking out about their harrowing ordeal to urge other parents to trust their gut instincts
Amity now has a long road to recovery ahead of her and is expected to remain in hospital in Brisbane for weeks.
‘She will be unable to eat for the next 4-6 weeks. Biggest risk is infection so the hospital is doing all necessary precautions for our little girl,’ her dad wrote on an online fundraiser.
‘This all could have been prevented if she was X-Rayed straight away, the damage that’s been done and what she is going through at the moment is because of the neglect and it being in there so long.’
Mackay Base Hospital says it’s reviewing Amity’s case.
‘Information provided to the hospital was that a polystyrene bean had been swallowed, and this would not have shown up in an X-ray,’ a statement read.
‘We do not routinely perform medical imaging on children who have swallowed a radiotransparent foreign body if their clinical presentation is normal.
‘As always, we ask patients to represent if they develop new symptoms or their condition deteriorates.’
The button battery lodged in Amity’s throat caused a 8cm acid burn. Pictured is the X-ray
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