Four Newborns in Australia Have Died Because Lockdowners Denied Them Life-Saving Surgery

Four babies have died in Adelaide in the past four weeks after they could not be airlifted to Melbourne due to the city’s coronavirus lockdown.

South Australia does not have a cardiac unit for children meaning seriously ill newborns with heart issues are normally taken to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital – but this option has been ruled out due to the pandemic [lockdown], an inquiry heard on Tuesday.

Victoria does not currently have any restrictions in place for travellers entering from another Australian state.

But Slaried Medical Officers Association chief industrial officer Bernadette Mulholland told The Australian that doctors told her ‘in these four cases, the issue was Victoria not being able to retrieve the babies’. 

Associate Professor John Svigos told the South Australian parliament’s public health services committee that Melbourne’s lockdown meant transfer was not available.

‘In our current COVID situation… the usual process of referral to the Melbourne cardiac unit is no longer tenable, and referral to Sydney is on a case-by-case basis,’ he said.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said in a press conference on Wednesday that the children were not kept away due to lockdown.

‘I don’t think it is a matter of restrictions,’ he said, adding ‘there was a choice not at our end, but the other end for them not to be sent’.

‘I can only go with what I’m been told. I don’t think it was a “you can’t come here” type of deal’.

The babies died over the course of the past four weeks, with the most recent death coming on Friday. 

The inquiry heard the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital being described as ‘second class’.

‘The Women’s and Children’s Hospital has sadly seen the deaths of three babies in the past four weeks who were unable to be transferred, who almost certainly would have benefited from on-site cardiac services,’ Professor Svigos said, according to the Adelaide Advertiser.

‘I shall leave it to you to imagine the profound effect of these deaths on the parents, their families and the dedicated medical and nursing staff dealing with these tragedies… they feel that they have let their patients down.’

The respected obstetrician, who now heads up the WCH Alliance lobby, bluntly asked how many more deaths of babies and young children will the community and staff be forced to endure before the situation is improved at the hospital?

Shortly after the explosive testimony, Ms Mulholland informed the committee a fourth child had also tragically died on Friday.

Source: The Daily Mail