Reporter investigates her own father's death in Australia's rural hospitals | 60 Minutes Australia

this is a story i don't want to have to tell and in modern australia i shouldn't need to tell it's about decent people in the country who are dying because of a rural health system that's letting them down they're people like my precious dad for many years brian ryan was a farmer who lived near tyree north of newcastle in new south wales he died a year ago but i believe my 88 year old dad would still be here today if not for a serious medical error that occurred while he was being treated in the local health system what happened to my dad brian ryan is inexcusable but it's just one of many cases that are as heartbreaking as they are tragic [Music] my dad was always indestructible always the rock he may have accepted he'd die one day but the day he died i didn't i instinctively knew that what i was witnessing was wrong because he didn't have to die that day i couldn't look away i couldn't walk away i couldn't pretend it hadn't happened i couldn't pretend it was somebody else's dad i couldn't pretend that this was somebody else's story this was brutal and it was awful [Music] dad always stood up for me now i'm standing up for him what he would want me to do is to not take a step back particularly on this front my dad would always fight for the underdog he always cared about others and he always cared about justice he always did and i can't let him down [Music] sharing this story with me this journey in many ways is abc journalist jamil wells [Music] it's little everyone knows everyone here we are two daughters of two dads we loved two dads we lost to a health system that appears to be broken he loved the country he loved the bush she was a real bushman we're in jamel's town her dad's town kobar in outback new south wales dad loved cobra whenever dad would call me he would ring and leave a message on my answering machine and he'd say jamil it's dad ringing from koba [Music] he loved the town right up until he died but the best the town could do for him was to kick him out of the hospital to a nursing home and i think that was the turning point for my father he just lost he lost everything then jamal what did the judge say in handing down this sentence like me jamel is a country girl who went to the city for her career guilty of the murder of her daughter she never thought she'd be back trying to find out what went fatally wrong for her dad in a country hospital [Music] nor did i think i'd be going home to new south wales manning river asking the same questions about my father's death he trusted and he absolutely believed everybody would do the right thing this was always going to be the hardest story i'd ever tell my dad was brian ryan he died at manning base hospital on september the 11th last year as a result of a catastrophic stroke the medication prescribed to prevent that stroke was not given to him for eight days i grew up in tahrir three hours north of sydney it's dairy country and this was dad's old farm my dad was there for all those pivotal moments in my life when i thought my wall was crashing he didn't he would tell me it's not he would never do anything other than put his arms around me and tell me it's okay it's this unconditional sort of love no matter what you did they were proud of you oh even even when i wasn't proud of me he was my mum patricia and dad raised five kids four boys and me they'd been married for more than 65 years when mum passed away in 2018. it was not an easy time for dad but he was determined to get on with life then late last year at 88 he developed pneumonia from which he was recovering well i think dad just felt good and felt strong and felt capable he had pneumonia and he overcame it and i could see again in his eyes i'm back and i'm going to be okay jamelle's dad was alan wells a builder from cobar the small but famous copper mining town in outback new south wales dad was a good man he had very simple tastes in life but he was proud and very stoic and he was a family man and how did he view his health and his mortality i guess i don't think he thought about it i think he thought he would live forever and he had the will to live forever he wanted to keep going forever and i think he thought that would be the case dad was a carpenter he was a builder he built his own home here alan wells was a dedicated community volunteer he was president of cobalt lines club which helped build the town's parks and gardens and regularly raised funds for koba hospital [Music] in 2016 after a lifetime together allen's beloved wife cecilia died after being married for almost 60 years he was lost without her he loved her so much he would go out to the koba cemetery twice a day to take flowers from his garden to her and sometimes the fellow who looks after the cemetery would say why have you come back and he'd say well a new rose has just opened so she would want to have this he loved her his heart was with mum and no one else in the country i think it is accepted that the medical services aren't like the city but it is also trusted that there would be great care dignity and as many resources as could possibly be found in the country my mum and dad expected that they would be cared for in a very professional and good way for an 88 year old dad was in reasonable shape he had a heart condition atrial fibrillation and his one essential medication was a blood thinner specifically prescribed to prevent strokes on the 22nd of august last year dad was admitted to the emergency department of manning base hospital suffering pneumonia that night a series of medication errors saw dad's heart rate dipped to dangerously low levels it was a near-miss but he recovered and fought off his chest infection then continued his recuperation in tari's private hospital the mayo it was there where another dreadful era was made we'd seen dad that afternoon and um i knew he wasn't at his best he was very keen to come home but he wasn't at his best i could see he was tired and so i said we'll see you tomorrow dad and we left and we went home and had dinner and um the call came to say you know i'm sorry your dad's had a serious stroke and we've transferred him back to the public hospital for treatment i got there and i was told instantly dad had suffered a catastrophic stroke and to be honest i went through all that awfulness of oh god i didn't think it would happen like this you know he was so well and but i accepted that this can happen you know and he's 88 and i guess he can have a stroke at 2 in the morning dad was wheeled into an empty room in a ward on the top floor other than his family no one came to see him or us we were standing there thinking well you know something must happen now you know you just don't park a patient and don't tell somebody and we were there for a good 15-20 minutes and his notes were just plonked on the end of the bed and that's when i started to look at the notes and that's when i saw you know the terrible truth dad's medical notes stated that the doctor from the mayo private hospital came to the emergency department to advise that dad hadn't been given the critical medication a pixie barn he took to help prevent strokes for more than a week if that hadn't happened to dad i feel confident that he wouldn't have suffered that stroke i feel confident that he could still be here i couldn't believe it it's something like that so simple could go wrong i think i knew i i think i knew i had to do something this is my dad we were to take him home today but we're not because of what's been called an error dad is now dying because of some terrible mistakes that were made with his medication i still can't look at that i i don't even know who i was talking to i instinctively wanted to say something i think i think i couldn't believe it i think recording it almost made me realize it was real i think i was recording my hurt my horror my sadness and my dad one of the nurses came in and said you can't stay here my father's begging for food and water can't you help him and she said no the hospitals were cruelty to hear those words must be so painful not care in a hospital who does that is the likely treatment no one deserves that it's just heartbreaking that's next on 60 minutes like me journalist jamil wells recently suffered the anguish of losing her 85 year old father alan in tauri i discovered in medical notes on my dad's hospital bed that his vital anti-stroke medication had not been given to him during his entire eight days in the local private hospital equally harrowing for jamel was witnessing the treatment her late father received in dubbo's public hospital after surgery for a fractured hip when he passed away is that when you decided to try and join some dots yes separately and now together we started asking questions one night in the hospital we were sitting with dad talking to him and he just looked at me and he said love i've got a feeling they've done the wrong thing by me something's gone wrong jamelle's dad had fallen at home the surgery to repair his broken hip at dubbo based hospital seemed problematic from the start there was infection and other complications but jamel and her father were kept in the dark we knew something had gone wrong with the surgery there was unexplained bleeding and he needed blood transfusions and five days after that first surgery they did a second surgery which was a lot for an 85 year old man two invasive surgeries within a week but still no clear explanation as to what the issue was yet after the second surgery dubbo hospital wanted to discharge jamel's father the very next day we fought that discharge and within a few hours of them letting him stay he had the cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated and intubated from the start there was this presumption against resuscitating him the doctors said to us look he's 85 you know and we felt that we were fighting tooth and nail for him to be allowed to be treated to allowed to live jemele refused to leave her father's side now becoming increasingly concerned about his hospital treatment disturbingly she says her dad was refused food and drink for three days because she was told there was no one available to conduct a sip test to ensure her father could swallow i said my father's begging for food and water can't you help him and she said no she said we can't afford to roster anyone on a long weekend you'll have to wait till tuesday that's harrowing you have your father begging for food and water and he can't have any because somebody who can help him with that isn't rosted on until after the weekend who does that in a hospital who does that not long after and despite still being very ill dubbo hospital suddenly decided alan wells had to be sent back to cobar this chain of events then unfolded it was very quick it was very sudden to jamil this urgency made no sense my father was in summer 40 degree heat taken out of dubbo based hospital on an ambulance stretch of being pushed into the ambulance and i'm sort of following going well can't we wait can't we no no you have to go that's what's been arranged [Music] [Laughter] the ambulance with a fragile alan wells on board began the long four hour trip i drove behind him for the whole trip i didn't know what to do i thought this shouldn't be happening he shouldn't be going back to kobab and when we pulled up at koba hospital it was at night they pulled the trolley out of the ambulance and dad said i could see you following me the whole way he'd seen me out through the ambulance doors following him but after a week in koba hospital and despite there being spare beds jamelle would hear for the second time that a hospital no longer wanted her father one of the nurses came in and said well you can't stay here you have to go to the nursing home and at that point my father's spirit was broken he you could see his eyes just were fearful and he said they're giving up on me they're giving up on me and to hear those words must be so painful yeah when they wheeled him out of coba hospital he was crying there were tears running down his cheeks and to see a proud man who'd done volunteer work for the hospital in his youth he'd put so much into the town who loved the town be wheeled off to a nursing home it was just heartbreaking on november the 10th last year five days after being sent to a nursing home alan wells died from the moment i spoke to jamel i knew that she was a kindred spirit we spoke a language i think that only those who've been through what we've been through spoke i understood her passion her drive her determination her anger and her overwhelming push to make something happen because that's exactly how i felt we all have to die sometime we all get old some people die young but to be robbed of your dignity to have your spirit broken by medical professionals who don't want to keep treating you who want to discharge you who make assumptions that well you're 85 and you're going to die no one deserves that no one deserves that especially such an honest and trusting man that my father was it has changed me and it has made me want to get to the bottom of of what went wrong with his care coming up we didn't fight hard enough we were too nice the medical records mixer this was a man from naremine not alan wells from cobra one more embarrassing bungle this poor old fellow's information had been sold to us as a hospital boss do you have anything to say about the criticisms of the hospital takes offence we don't want you filming on the property it's a hospital it should be about caring that's next on 60 minutes there were very basic things wrong on the records jamel wells and i are investigating the deaths of our fathers it's very hard to read medical records about your loved one who has died but for both of us it started as a very private quest you're experiencing a very personal trauma and you're trying to walk through this pool of grief but there's a journalist always inside you going this is just wrong this this is just wrong this is where dad's life really took a terrible turn the mayo private hospital in tahrir it's here where he failed to receive his vital anti-stroke medication for his entire eight-day stay of all the medications not to give him that was the most important medication for him to have under no illusion as to our family's disbelief and anger the mayo hospital conducted an investigation it admitted the almost unforgivable error that upon admission a doctor simply failed to properly chart dad's medication but i also discovered this was a 79 bed hospital with just one doctor at a time on a temporary rotating basis and on the night of dad's stroke the doctor on duty wasn't actually in the hospital but on call at manning public hospital where dad was later taken the stark reality of rural health was beginning to take shape when medical staff revealed their own painful stories dad was still in his hospital bed when nurses spoke to us and said we're really sorry about what happened to your dad one nurse actually said to me i'm a nurse because that's what happened to my dad it also occurred to me that if i hadn't seen those notes would i be telling this story would i ever know would anyone have ever told us i don't know [Music] we're at dubbo base hospital this is the place where you feel everything went wrong and it's here where jamil wells father alan underwent two operations within a week before being hastily moved on is there an issue um out of the blue appears the hospital's general manager debbie bickerton is there a particular concern i know just that we don't want you filming on the property that's all the general manager is much less concerned with discussing complaints with us about patient care do you have anything to say about the criticisms of the hospital nothing not concerned about anything that's been said miss bikerton's priorities offered little comfort to jamelle it's a hospital it should be about caring i still can't can't understand why you have to fight so hard in a system to look after an elderly parent i still can't understand that the details jamil has uncovered about her dad's treatment at times beggars belief it made her want to search even deeper into his hospital care i can see why she wanted to do a story because not to have told this story would have been terrible it was almost like saying to the people that had done the wrong thing it's okay alan wells health went into a sharp and inexplicable decline after two operations here at dubbo hospital jamelle's mission to find out exactly why hasn't been made easy starting with the outrageous cost she was charged for her dad's medical records dad died just before christmas and i applied to dubbo hospital for his medical records thinking that they would charge me the standard feed which is around 33 so they rang me and said um the cost will be over 600 dollars did they say why they didn't say why i queried it and they said that's the fee for your father's medical records so because it was all very raw my father had just died there were so many unanswered things about his care and his surgeries i just put the money on my credit card because i thought i need to know what happened the medical records were a shambles she found multiple pages missing doctors she'd never heard of listed as treating her father and in a serious breach of patient confidentiality it's not dead the paperwork included another patient's records so this was a man from naremine which is out west but not alan wells from cobra and this poor old fellow's information had been sold to us but there was more the records falsely stated alan wells had dementia and given as a reason why he was unable to request pain relief there was also evidence of unexplained bruising one of the nurses wrote in his records after his first surgery that his whole body was covered in bruising and right through his records nurses right bruising bruising bruising but no doctor ever explored why that might have happened or offered any treatment but the records failed to answer what went wrong with alan wells first hip surgery and what the doctors found when he was operated on again five days later you were searching for answers did you find any answers regarding your father's surgeries no after the first surgery my father had a massive bleed that required two blood transfusions so the doctors told us that that's why they needed to do the second surgery but after the second surgery there is nothing in the records about a doctor reviewing him or what they found and it's after that second surgery that my father became very very unwell and deteriorated rapidly when dubbo hospital decided alan well should be discharged he was pushed into an ambulance on a searing summer's day and driven to cobar that was when he was discharged from dubbo hospital and they didn't want him back in his medical records a note that alan wills was not to come back not for transfer back to double bass so after reading his medical records if you had your time again you would do things very differently yeah yeah we thought we fought tooth and nail for our father in hospital we didn't fight hard enough we were too nice we were too polite coming up you feel like you don't count because we're not listened to too afraid to talk or you jump up and down the more you shine how good doctors are silenced were you threatened with your job yes and can it get any worse the nurses kept saying to me you should be on antibiotics the blister that led to an amputation that literally took my breath away that's next on 60 minutes [Music] in our quest to learn more about what happened to our fathers jamel wells and i began peeling back the layers of the healthcare system in our respective rural areas and what we were discovering was alarming is gone it was only a matter of days before people were coming and saying i understand what's happened to you and i know how you feel because something like that has happened to me my upbringing in the valleys and beaches in the manning river district of new south wales was in many ways idyllic but this is also home to the oldest demographic in new south wales with the worst cardiac outcomes in regional australia and a health service that struggles to cope morale of the staff working at manning hospital is terrible staff work in conditions with no infrastructure and no support medical professionals including doctors and nurses contacted me but all were fearful of the consequences if they were identified anyone who speaks out is always under threat of not having their contracts renewed dr gupta the whistleblowers uh operate in a in a climate of fear they tell me dr krishna gupta chairman of the manning hospital medical staff council was dismayed that whistleblowers in his region some probably colleagues aren't given more protection they are they are the people who keep us honest and keep us on guard they point out our deficiency and we need to work on that so if that's the case that's very unfortunate were you literally threatened with your job uh that was said yes speaking carefully even from the relative security of his recent retirement long-time specialist at manning base hospital dr philip walcom confirmed the climate of fear in the local health system how did that impact medical staff well i think you know you go with the flow and in essence you know if you start rocking the boat particularly when you're out in a place like this you know you don't want to lose your job or get a bad name for creating problems the more you jump up and down the more you're shunned it's uh and who's doing the shunning ah the people who provide the money and who are they the hunter new england health hunter new england health runs manning base hospital the source of many terrible stories that were told to me perhaps the most confronting involved allegations that a young quadriplegic patient who as he lay in his bed was physically assaulted and threatened by a hospital security worker patient disclosed that a man came in and threatened and physically assaulted him it makes me lose faith in the whole system those sort of things shouldn't even happen in an ordinary situation little lady in the hospital is just horrifying mother kerry knows her once surfing champion son struggled with his disability and says he suffered complex mental health issues that made him a very difficult and challenging patient pressed his elbow into his neck but she says threats of any kind are totally unacceptable i'm just trying to picture you know him lying in bed and this great big security guard you know putting pressure on his neck he wouldn't be able to do anything you know it's just awful um he's got no way of retaliating whatsoever so it's just just horrible the security guard who assaulted the quadriplegic patient is the partner of mening hospital's general manager jody neas miss nias confirmed that the incident had been investigated but said she'd declared a conflict of interest the investigation resulted in the security guard being sacked this is a young man who has found himself in a body that doesn't work he was frightened he was intimidated he stopped eating and drinking that literally took my breath away [Music] a number of medical professionals told me they lacked confidence in ms niace's administration but she maintained during a long meeting with me that she is the right person to be in charge of the hospital the staff everybody knows there are issues simmering that are never being addressed the general manager of the manning hospital told me that she could run the hospital with her eyes closed i don't think anyone could run a hospital with their eyes closed and i think that's probably a lack of perception of really what it takes if there was one thing that you would change if you could to improve rural health and particularly in this area what might that be that's a very hard question i really i wouldn't know where to start i really wouldn't there's an arrogance in bureaucracy and government that we don't count and ag our aging population which we are the majority here are just being dismissed long-time local resident and author dai morrissey runs and funds a fiercely independent local newspaper with her husband boris that's a lot of correspondence that's about a whole year but you can't receive some of these letters and not think what can you do she and her paper have become a magnet for hospital whistleblowers patients and their relatives who write to her because no one else it seems will pay attention to their stories it's heartbreaking it really is and then you think oh golly this could be my mum this could be my dad this could be you know us dye believes many people in the manning field dispirited that their health needs are not a priority to those in charge you feel like you don't count because we're not listened to and nothing changes money goes to things that don't seem appropriate when the real basics should be looked after have you got a health plan i had my health plan i said to a doctor friend what do you do when you get sick what are you going to do and he said get in the car and drive to sydney and i went alright it was like you were in the third world country it was like the stuff we see on telly about syria and or lebanon or you know iraq and and there was just battle and you know i gotta say there was people dying in there former minor john stingemore is another casualty of australia's rural health system what he suffered as a patient in cobar and dubbo hospitals where jamel's dad also spent his final days is so shocking it's almost unbelievable i went to the hospital and the charge nurse looked at me and she said yes that's serious last december john walked into cobar hospital with an infected blister on his little toe so began a nightmarish series of events bounced between kobar and dubbo hospitals a round trip of eight hours he worried his toe would deteriorate over the christmas period when he wouldn't be able to see his gp for nearly two weeks all those gps were going on their holidays at 12 noon on the 20th of december and not coming back to the 6th of january and he said it looks like it's going all right how about we just sort of leave it at that and if it gets bad again go to the hospital when john finally got to see a doctor at kobar hospital he was told his infection was so serious his toe was now beyond repair and he said how do you feel about going to dubbo for probably an amputation and i said well mate if i had a pair of bolt cutters i'd just take it off myself but i don't think i could sew it up and he said well you you can drive to dubbo and i said well i said look at my foot i can't drive the dubo with that foot. john spent three days waiting for an air ambulance all the time his toe infection worsening all the time i had no antibiotics and i kept the nurses kept saying to me you should be on antibiotics and i'd say where are they let's do it and they say well we're only nurses mate we can't do that finally in dubbo another night passed before he was taken into theater to have his toe cut off under a local anesthetic i can hear them working and all of a sudden the tourniquet on the thigh tightened right up and i thought that's the signal and it hurt so how can all of what happened to you be explained well it can't be explained it's a total breakdown in the system there's too many patients being pushed in here and there aren't enough staff to do the jobs somebody needs to get these people and give them a good shaken because it's more than my pistoling thing with my toe and i know i could have died but i didn't so i i say mr hazard it's time to get out and face the music there will always be a chill it's just not that simple no more excuses you hand out billions of dollars what's going wrong how to make a sick system better the key is coming together the key is empowerment but at what cost i know about your dad i know about so many other dads it just doesn't go away that's next on 60 minutes [Music] there are seven million australians seven million australians live in country rural remote areas and their health system is compromised rural doctors will tell you they're begging for help begging for something better that's not fair we've got a system that is really really sick when it's beyond the major cities i hate to say it but a lot of times i think it's out of sight out of mind ryan park is new south wales shadow minister for health he wants all sides of politics to join forces to once and for all fix rural healthcare this is australia in 2020 we should pride ourselves on having universal access to healthcare and at the moment a postcode is determining the level of access to health care you get and that's simply not right because we have a rural health commissioner appointed by the federal government we have health ministers in every state we have any number of government organizations appointed to look at rural health nothing happens nothing has changed well it's appalling and it's a reflection on my view from governments of all political persuasions probably over the last 20 or 30 years liz if some of these stories were coming out of a major sydney hospital there'd be a ride in the street and there would be action within the day [Music] an hour from my home town of tauri is port macquarie where the hospital and health services are a model for what rural health can be and the key is coming together the key is coming together the key is empowerment if the local community is empowered to do it it becomes easy for government rob oakshot is training to be a doctor here but a few years back the former politician and local member managed to bring together all interested parties both private and public to come up with a strong regional healthcare plan the result is impressive and now includes a university campus where students can get a full medical degree it might take a bit of money a bit of support but in the end the grunt work is done by the community and then the worst thing government could do is slap it down at the end and say no not interested we're going to do it our way that's the complete office that just disempowers and the whole thing falls apart and you know we're in a very unhealthy state and that happens too often i met with new south wales health minister brad hazard to put to him what jamel and i have discovered and what those working at the coalface of the rural health system have told us you hand out billions of dollars you surely must be saying where is this money going for me to be hearing stories about you know someone having to travel four hours to get an antibiotic we in new south wales are spending around about just shy of 28 billion this year so almost more than 30 odd percent but closer to 40 percent of the budget so entire state budget so why are these stories happening we have we have a wall of silence basically uh behind which medical professionals nurses doctors are speaking out to say things aren't good enough um i receive people who have concerns about issues i mean it's a it's a massive system are you saying this doesn't happen i mean i can tell you what's happening i see it's a massive it's a massive system liz and it is the biggest and best health system by far probably in the world just listening to you makes me frustrated i have to say and i don't work in the health system because i i think i'm hearing politics i don't think i'm here you're hearing genuine concern that the health system in new south wales is a fantastic system there are individual issues that arise obviously but when there's two million people a quarter of the new south wales population come through our ed each year there will be from time to time issues they will always be a challenge it's just not that simple in essence are you saying to me you're happy the rural health system is a success what i'm saying is that this government my government and me as health minister have worked very hard to try and happy succeed rural health services as they stand well you can ask your question and of course i can answer it and i'm answering it every health minister in the country has actually tried has tried very hard to support regional and rural hospitals we have discussions amongst the meeting at the meetings we have about how we can all do that everybody is trying i'll ask one more time are you happy with rural services in new south wales i am happy that we as a government are doing everything humanly possible to make sure that the health system in regional new south wales is as good as it can humanly be [Music] losing our fathers has been devastating and finding out why has been a painful journey for jamel and i dear father i've got your photographs [Music] but if we found one overwhelming answer it's that we need to keep asking questions and not just for our families but for every other family living in rural australia you learn to accept that your father's gone you learn to live with it somewhere in your heart and think well he's not physically here but you can't just say oh it's all right it's fine i'll just i'll just leave that there it's it's broken there's things wrong but i'll move on that which happened to dad we now know i know about your dad i know about so many other dads and it just doesn't go away i would have failed if i had not tried to tell this story [Music] hello i'm liz hayes thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the nine now app for full episodes another exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 321,498

Rating: 4.7988186 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, rural hospital, regional hospital, liz hayes dad, liz hayes father, bryan ryan, malpractice, death in hospital, underfunded hospital, dubbo, cobar, taree, regional australia, rural health system, broken health system, personal story, death investigation, investigating fathers death, manning base hospital, australian health care, universal healthcare, free healthcare, whistleblowers, doctors and nurses, brad hazzard, jamelle wells

Id: 0aQD98ABziE

Length: 46min 25sec (2785 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2020