Sydney’s Lidcombe-Bankstown Hospital bombshell: Criminal charges laid after laughing gas tragedy

Criminal charges are laid after 2016 hospital laughing gas tragedy which left one baby boy dead and another with permanent brain damage

  • Newborn John Ghanem died and Amelia Khan left with permanent brain damage
  • Tragedy followed mix-up with nitrous oxide confused for oxygen in hospital
  • Nitrou oxide is used widely on adults for pain relief but is poisonous to babies

Criminal charges have been laid more than two years after a newborn baby died and another suffered permanent brain damage in a tragic gas mix-up at a Sydney hospital.  

Baby John Ghanem died after he was accidentally given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen at Lidcombe-Bankstown Hospital in July 2016. 

Another baby, Amelia Khan, was left with permanent brain damage in a similar mix-up at the same hospital a month earlier.   

The hospital’s general manager and acting director were both stood down and an investigation was carried out into both incidents. 

A report released in August 2016 pointed to ‘a series of tragic errors’ at the hospital including incorrect installations of gas pipelines, flawed testing and significant clinical and management failures. 

The parents of Amelia Khanare pictured. Their daughter suffered brain damage after she was fed nitrous oxide instead of oxygen soon after her birth in Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital

On Wednesday Safework NSW confirmed to AAP it had filed criminal charges for the matter but a spokeswoman refused to comment further. 

According to 9 News, Safework NSW filed charges in July this year.

Gas company BOC and the South West Local Health District have both been charged over the incident.

Christopher Turner, the independent contractor who installed the gas lines on behalf of BOC, has also been charged over the incident.

He has previously dismissed suggestions he installed nitrous oxide as opposed to oxygen. 

Safework NSW have pointed to breaches of the Work Place Health and Safety Act.

They allege that doctors at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital mistakenly administered nitrous oxide instead of oxygen to the newborns. 

John Ghanem's family (pictured) were left devastated over the tragic death of their newborn baby in 2016

John Ghanem’s family (pictured) were left devastated over the tragic death of their newborn baby in 2016

It was later revealed gas expelled from an outlet in the birthing suite was incorrectly labelled oxygen.

Adults commonly use nitrous oxide as a form of pain relief – but it is poisonous to babies. 

‘The family welcomes this next step and hopes it will at last give them some answers on exactly how and why this occurred,’ the Khan family’s lawyer Libby Brookes said.

South Western Sydney Local Health District confirmed they were co-operating with SafeWork NSW but could not comment further as it was now a matter before the courts.     
Bankstown Lidcombe Hospital (pictured) in Sydney's south-west, where two newborns were fed nitrous oxide instead of oxygen in the birthing suite

Bankstown Lidcombe Hospital (pictured) in Sydney’s south-west, where two newborns were fed nitrous oxide instead of oxygen in the birthing suite

 

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