A six-year-old girl has died of the flu at Northern Beaches hospital after being twice sent home from the Sydney Children’s hospital, and the New South Wales health minister has said her parents “deserve answers”.
The girl presented to the emergency department at the Sydney Children’s hospital in Randwick on Monday and was discharged after a clinical assessment.
A spokesperson for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN) said she presented again “shortly after” and was diagnosed with influenza.
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She was then discharged with at-home guidance, the spokesperson said.
The girl was later admitted to the Northern Beaches hospital where she died on Tuesday, police confirmed.
The SCHN spokesperson said upon learning of the girl’s death, “they expressed their deepest condolences to the family for the loss of their child”.
The hospital network will be conducting an initial review into the patient’s care while at the Randwick hospital, and will work with the Northern Sydney Local Health District as part of the joint independent clinical governance process.
The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, said: “I’m heartbroken to learn of the death of a child following presentation to Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick and Northern Beaches Hospital.
“I wish to express my deepest condolences to the family for their devastating loss,” Park said.
“I want to understand how and why this tragedy has occurred and the parents deserve answers,” Park said.
The matter has been referred to the coroner and is also the subject of a joint Serious Adverse Event Review, he said.
Park said he was “mindful how distressing these events are for staff, and I know they’ll be impacted by this tragedy”.
The St Luke’s Grammar School principal, Geoff Lancaster, told the ABC that the young girl was “bright, vivacious, kind and free-spirited”.
