Family may sue hospital over teen's death

Family may sue hospital over teen's death

The family of 19-year-old Cassie Laurent plans to file a suit against Wellington Hospital after the inquest into her death points the finger at the negligence of unsupervised junior doctors. Coroner Gary Evans has released the findings of the inquest and has asked the Hospital to review its procedures. He has also made recommendations to improve things at the hospital.

Ms. Laurent died on July 25, 2003 when her pneumonia remained undiagnosed even after she was taken thrice to the Emergency Department of the Wellington Hospital. On her first visit she was advised to get an X-ray done. In the absence of a radiologist, the X-ray was studied by a junior doctor who couldn't diagnose the pneumonia.

Ms. Laurent went to the hospital twice when her condition worsened and was examined separately by three junior doctors. She was kept in the hospital on the night of the 23rd and discharged the next morning. The report of the radiologist on her X-ray came on the 25th, the day she died.

The inquest revealed that, contrary to the rules, it was common for junior doctors to discharge patients without consulting senior doctors and a radiology reports usually took 4-5 days to be made.

Cassie Laurent's mother Linda Laurent is not satisfied with the findings of the inquest. “The whole crux of it is who let her die? Someone has to be held accountable. Those four doctors – are there any repercussions for them? They'll walk away and think, `Thank God that's over'. But what about next time?”

The district health board has stated that the recommendations made by Coroner Evans have been implemented. “Wellington has improved things since then. We now have a specialist on in the evening but we still don't have one at night [overnight],” said Deborah Powell spokesperson of the Junior Doctors' Association.

Another inquest was made following a death in 2001 and Mr. Evans had made similar recommendations which according to him were not acted upon.