Meningitis link in baby death
A father says he is ‘‘furious’’ his 7-month-old son died from suspected meningitis, despite the baby being taken to hospital three times.
David Chaloner’s baby, Zoren, died on Thursday, November 7 at Ashburton Hospital.
Three days earlier, on November 4, Chaloner says Zoren’s mother took him to the hospital because he was ‘‘coughing, he had a runny nose and he had a bit of a fever’’.
‘‘They monitored him for about four to five hours and then they said: ‘It is just a viral fever, take him home, here is some paracetamol and ibuprofen, on your way’.’’
The next day, November 5, Zoren still was not coming right, so Chaloner took him back to the hospital. Hospital staff monitored him overnight, then again sent him home. ‘‘They said, ‘if he is still the same just call’.’’
On Thursday, Chaloner was at work. He said his ex-partner took Zoren to the Tinwald Medical Centre, where staff told them to return to the hospital.
That day was Chaloner’s daughter’s birthday and he went to the supermarket to pick up supplies.
He was in the formula section of Countdown, and called his expartner at the hospital to check what to buy.
‘‘She did not answer me and I heard her crying and then she just said: ‘he is not doing OK’; so I dropped everything, I jumped in my car, straight off to the hospital. By the time I got there they had him all strapped to the machines and they had his mask over his face and he was really trying to fight for his life.
‘‘It was just real bad, he went downhill real quick. I felt
so helpless.’’
A doctor told him a helicopter had been sent from Christchurch to pick up the boy but Zoren’s condition continued deteriorating.
‘‘The nurse came along and says: ‘he might not make it’, so we broke down.
‘‘We went back in [for] his final moments and he passed away.
‘‘We just held him . . . held his dead body. You just can’t believe it.’’
Chaloner said the death was ‘‘the hardest thing’’.
He felt ‘‘shattered and
heartbroken’’ but also furious at the health services.
A letter to the family from the Coronial Services Unit, seen by The Press, said an early postmortem showed Zoren’s cause of death could be acute bacterial meningitis.
Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal chord, mainly caused by bacteria or viruses. It can be difficult to diagnose because early symptoms are often similar to flu.
In this case, samples indicated it was caused by streptococcal bacteria. Meningococcal bacteria is the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in New Zealand, according to the Southern Cross website.
Meningitis can affect anyone but the age groups most at risk of infection are infants aged 6 to 18 months, children under 5, adolescents, elderly people and people with compromised immune systems.
The letter said the final cause of death could be different from that early result, as test results and other information could become available.
Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) chief medical officer Dr Sue Nightingale expressed sympathy to the family.
She would not comment on the baby’s hospital treatment, citing the coronial inquiry.
Nightingale said there had been nine cases of meningitis notified in Canterbury so far this year. Seven were meningococcal meningitis – one of which resulted in death – and two cases were pneumococcal meningitis, of which one resulted in death.