Four years after the death of 17-year-old James Tsindos, his family has spoken publicly for the first time, calling for accountability over what they say was a preventable tragedy at Holmesglen Private Hospital’s emergency department, operated by Healthscope.
James, a Brighton Grammar student and gifted pianist, died in May 2021 after suffering a severe anaphylactic reaction from inadvertently consuming cashew-based sauce.
He was taken by ambulance to Holmesglen, where he later went into cardiac arrest and sustained a catastrophic brain injury.
“I’m burying my son, and I don’t really know what happened,” his father, Harry Tsindos, told 60 Minutes.
“I’ve got a kid that walks into an ambulance, says to me, ‘Dad, I’m fine,’ and I’m burying him. What went wrong is that we took him to Holmesglen hospital. That’s what went wrong.”
Paramedics had administered two doses of adrenaline before transferring James for observation. As he arrived at the hospital, he began to wheeze — a sign the medication was wearing off — but this was not passed on to the triage nurse.
Despite using his asthma puffer and showing signs of respiratory distress, James was triaged as a category three patient, to be seen within 30 minutes, and placed in isolation for a COVID-19 test rather than in a resuscitation room.
“James at that point of triage could have and should have gotten immediate adrenalin,” Sharri Liby, the Tsindos family’s lawyer, said.
“That’s the drug that is the baseline standard of care for anybody having an anaphylactic reaction.”
His mother, Venetia Tsindos, said the inaction in an emergency setting remains unfathomable.
“It’s not only frustrating, but it’s tragic and traumatic to try and come to terms with the fact that first aid wasn’t actioned in an emergency hospital,” she said.
James’ sisters, Kristina and Georgia, said their brother’s death should never have happened.
“I personally don’t think they should have an emergency department,” said Kristina.
“They should scratch their whole emergency department.” Georgia added, “I’m angry that he didn’t get to live his life … it was so preventable.”
The Tsindos family said the knowledge that a single dose of adrenaline could have saved their son has left them devastated.
“What they should have said is, ‘We are sorry. This shouldn’t have happened. James should still be alive. We screwed up, bad’,” Harry said.
Healthscope, owned by Canadian asset manager Brookfield and burdened by $1.6 billion in debt, is under scrutiny following multiple patient deaths in its private emergency departments.
CEO Tino La Spina said the company is cooperating fully with the coronial inquest into James’ death and will implement any recommendations.
“We have expressed our deepest sympathies to the families of Antoinette O’Brien and James Tsindos,” La Spina said, acknowledging rare but serious failures in patient care.
Source: 9Now.
