She said: “I do recall standing outside the resus room with (nurse Marianela Balatico) where she asked if I was OK and said that I looked really upset when I realised that antibiotics had not been given,” she said.
Burns said her son only got the antibiotics after she warned Dr Luke Lake, the acting medical registrar on duty at the time, about the failure to administer the drug.
But due to a communication mix-up between the duty emergency registrar, Dr Rebecca McMillan, and nurses, the “life-saving” drug was not administered within the vital first hour of treatment, the inquest heard.
McMillan said she was concerned that she had to plead with Dr Mathuratha Sivasubramanian, the intensive care registrar responsible for admission, the court heard.
Coroner Mary Hassell had relayed Balatico’s previous evidence to the court when the nurse admitted the instruction to give Hewes antibiotics had “slipped my mind” as she focused on relieving his symptoms.
