1. Mum describes “horrific” treatment of her sick baby in NSW hospital, who had a ‘cut-off bottle teat’ sticky-taped to his stomach.
Lismore hospital staff used cut-off baby bottle teat to treat sick NSW infant. #9News https://t.co/9ocoPokA0E
— Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) May 25, 2017
The mother of a child treated at Lismore Base hospital in 2014 has told nine.com.au that hospital staff used “sticky-tape” to treat her infant’s herniated obstructed bowel.
Speaking to the site on condition of anonymity, she described the treatment given to her two-month-old son and her family as “third world”.
The young mother and her partner took their baby boy – who was born premature – to the Lismore Base Hospital’s emergency department in late 2014 when he lacked interest in food and wouldn’t stop crying. They were told his symptoms were “because he’s a premature baby” and were sent home.
By January 2015, a mass on the baby’s belly button had grown from the size of a pea to the size of a cricket ball. The boy’s distraught mum returned to the hospital when the mass started “going purple and green”.
“We were told it was a hernia. They took the baby through when they realised the baby was distraught and when they’d seen the baby’s belly button,” she has told nine.com.au.
“They had to put a bunch of whatever (drugs) they could into him because he was so young and distraught.”
She then claims staff used a “cut-off bottle teat” to push the mass of skin back into her baby’s stomach. She was told to “stand there and hold it” while they discussed further treatment.
The woman explained the cut-off teat was attached to her son’s stomach with “a bit of sticky tape”.
The young family was also told the teat would have to “stay in there” until doctors returned the following day or until they could drive to a different hospital.
Her son was finally admitted to the hospital when the family refused to leave. The mum said she lay awake next to her son for “as many hours as she could” because she “didn’t trust” the staff on duty.