$3m ambos action fails
Judge says paramedics’ response justified
A CAIRNS Supreme Court Justice had dismissed a $3 million negligence case against the Queensland Ambulance Service after a Far Northern woman suffered brain damage from a severe asthma attack.
Jennifer Masson was 25 when she collapsed on the front lawn of her friend’s Brinsmead home in July 2002. As a result she was catastrophically brain damaged and needed around the clock care before her death in 2016.
It is alleged she would have avoided the injury if the attending paramedics had promptly administered adrenaline, and their decision not to do so breached duty of patient care guidelines.
A recently published judgment revealed that a personal injuries claim against the State had not been finalised by the time of Ms Masson’s death.
“The action survived in the hands of her estate,” Justice James Henry said.
Damages were agreed at $3 million before the trial regarding the issue of liability.
An ambulance crew was with Ms Masson by 10.58pm, six minutes after a triple-0 call was made. She was given intravenous salbutamol one minute later.
“It is this decision upon which the case largely turns. The two frontline drugs in the treatment of asthma attacks are adrenaline and salbutamol,” Justice Henry said.
The plaintiff argues adrenaline should have been administered at the scene, while the State contends salbutamol was a reasonable response particularly because at the time Ms Masson was tachycardic and hypertensive. “The urgent reality presenting itself on a suburban front lawn at night was that Ms Masson was certainly going to die if ambulance officers did not administer immediate treatment,” Justice Henry said.
He said that while expert evidence found adrenaline was preferable for asthmatics in extremis, Justice Henry found that Ms Masson’s high heart rate and blood pressure were legitimate concerns that adrenaline might worsen her condition by causing a dangerous arrhythmia or heart failure.
He dismissed claims that QAS had breached their duty of care for Ms Masson. Costs will be heard next month if not agreed on in the meantime.
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