‘Nurses with Zachary were crying’
Parents tell coroner’s inquiry how medic burst in, saying they ‘needed to run’ to say goodbye to student
We were told they were just getting him settled and then we could go in and see him. Once there, we were told things were not looking good.
Jennifer Gravatt
Anew coroner’s inquiry into the death of an Auckland student from meningococcal disease has begun, with his parents giving a harrowing account of his last hours in hospital.
Zachary Gravatt died in Auckland City Hospital on July 8, 2009, just over 15 hours after he woke with a fever, headache and extreme pain in his right groin.
The 22-year-old died due to septicaemia from the C-strain meningococcal bacteria.
Yesterday the court heard his death was sudden and unexpected, with coroner Morag McDowell offering condolences to his parents for their “terrible loss”.
“[His] untimely death was devastating and tragic for you and your family.”
Parents Lance and Jennifer Gravatt recounted in court yesterday their final hours with Zachary.
“I have never seen Zachary so unwell,” Jennifer said.
He was listless, unable to hold a conversation and she recalled wanting to push the red button so he would receive urgent care.
“We were all suspended in an inactive zone.”
His blood pressure was dropping to a “disturbingly low level”.
She spoke of how a group of medical professionals whisked her son away, one managing a breathing bag: “I was not given the nod to accompany him and sadly I did not.”
They disappeared from sight.
“We were told they were just getting him settled and then we could go in and see him.”
A nurse escorted the family into the wha¯nau room.
“Once there, we were told things were not looking good,” she said.
They were “recoiling” from that news when a nurse burst in to say they needed to run if they wanted to say goodbye to Zachary.
Looking on through an internal window, Jennifer could see they were too late, and her son had died, and at first her husband could not bring himself to go into the room.
“I could not see that Zachary was hooked up to any machines,” she said.
“There were none that appeared to be turned on or working.
“The nurses with Zachary were crying.”
She stayed to talk to her son, stroking his hair while the nurses removed the tubes.
She was asked if they wanted to take a print of her son’s hand and was shocked that rigor mortis had begun to set in, but they did take a print.
“I remembered thinking he must have died some time ago for this to be the case.”
Lance spoke of being “strongly motivated” to go into the hospital first thing next morning to thank the doctors for trying to save his son.
In those discussions, he said, staff were surprised at how quickly Zachary had deteriorated and died.
While still awaiting the blood result to confirm what infection it was, there was a suspicion Zachary had died of meningococcal, Lance said.
“And then we went to the mortuary to say a prayer for Zachary before his autopsy.”
Lance previously told the Herald the couple suffered mental-health problems after the death and he — but not his wife — was still receiving mental-health services help.
The loss still saddened them and, after speaking to court, Lance did not feel there was any more he could say about Zachary.
“Not without bursting into tears.”