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🇦🇺 Australia /Health & Science

Baby's hospital death due to congenital heart defect, not care, inquest finds

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • A baby girl's death at a Queensland hospital was due to an undiagnosed congenital heart defect, not substandard care, an inquest found.
  • The baby, Thea Flaskett, died four hours after birth from Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA).
  • The coroner ruled that while staff did their best, the condition was unsurvivable, and antenatal detection was not reasonably expected.

A coroner has ruled that a baby girl's death at a south-east Queensland hospital was caused by an undiagnosed congenital heart defect, stating her post-delivery care met the required standard. Thea Flaskett died just four hours after her birth in September 2023 at Redcliffe Hospital.

not the standard of her post-delivery care

— Deputy State Coroner Stephanie GallagherRuling on the cause of baby Thea Flaskett's death.

An autopsy revealed the newborn suffered from Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA), a cardiac abnormality. The inquest into her death, prompted by her parents' concerns about her care, concluded that while the condition was unsurvivable, factors like poorer oxygenation of blood due to reduced shunting and a possible postpartum hemorrhage compounded the situation.

one or more factors made her condition unsurvivable

— Deputy State Coroner Stephanie GallagherExplaining the circumstances contributing to the baby's death.

Deputy State Coroner Stephanie Gallagher found that detecting TGA during pregnancy was not reasonably supported by the evidence. Experts testified that antenatal detection rates for TGA are low, and missing it, as in Thea's case, is not uncommon and was not the fault of the sonographers or radiologist. The scanning adhered to all protocols and guidelines.

not reasonably supported by the evidence

— Deputy State Coroner Stephanie GallagherRegarding the possibility of detecting the congenital heart defect during pregnancy scans.

During the inquest, it was heard that hospital staff and a neonatal rescue team made efforts to resuscitate Thea after her condition deteriorated shortly after birth. Ms. Gallagher concluded that all staff acted appropriately and did everything they could to save her life. However, she reiterated that the outcome was determined by the underlying congenital cardiac abnormality, not the quality of care provided after delivery. The coroner noted that even if detected antenatally, there was no guarantee Thea's death would have been avoided.

Missed detection, such as in Thea's case, is not uncommon.

— Deputy State Coroner Stephanie GallagherExplaining the low antenatal detection rates for Transposition of the Great Arteries.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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