Misdiagnosis upon admission to Tauranga hospital

Despite my telling Tauranga hospital staff that Melissa had had a low level fall and hit her head and the impact mark and CT scan supporting that, and despite her age which makes shaking to the extent of coma virtually impossible; because she had retinal haemorrhages in one eye her diagnosis was immediately put down to “severe shaken baby syndrome” seemingly by Dr J, Tauranga hospital specialist paediatrician. It was his opinion that Melissa would inevitably die very shortly, so there was no point in wasting money on an emergency transfer for an emergency craniotomy to relieve the subdural haemorrhage pressure. For some reason he turned down the neurosurgeons offer to do emergency burr hole surgery to relieve the pressure when the neurosurgeon realised they would not prioritise transfer. Five hours later, with Melissa defying his prognosis he finally decided to transfer her to Starship by road, the slowest possible means by which to do so. By then widespread ischemia or tissue death due to blood circulation being cut off for too long had already occurred. It was not until eleven hours later that Melissa finally had an emergency craniotomy. I think Dr J is a man of high integrity and was indecisive about not allowing Melissa treatment, but half-heartedly believed or doubted himself because of propaganda said of retinal haemorrhages and ‘shaken baby’ by doctors such as Dr K crown specialist paediatrician. Dr K played a crucial part in ensuring I was convicted of shaken baby.