7-Year-Old Critical After Appendix Ruptured As She Waited 8 Hours For Emergency Surgery

A seven-year-old girl of an Adelaide couple waited for over eight hours for an emergency surgery at the Women's and Children's Hospital. It was while waiting for the surgery that she became critically ill as her appendix burst.

"She was in so much pain and we couldn't do anything," said the girl's mother, Annabelle Oates told 9News. "I was just holding onto Audrey's hand and just trying to get her through it," she added about the child, who was diagnosed with appendicitis last month.

The family were told to take her to the Women's and Children's Hospital. When they reached the hospital at 3 p.m., they said they waited three hours for the first examination by a nurse. It took another three hours before they could see a doctor. By 9.30 p.m. it was decided that the child had to undergo surgery.

Audrey was left waiting in the emergency department. At about 10 p.m, her appendix ruptured. She was not taken to surgery until 11.30 p.m. "There were lots of parents who just walked away, there were kids with head injuries who weren't even seen by the emergency department because everything was so busy," Oates said. Audrey is recovering now.

Meanwhile, both senior doctors and Premier Steven Marshall have apologised to the Oates family for the ordeal. An investigation into the matter is underway. "The important thing to say in this case is that we acknowledge that there was a delay in assessing this child and we're sorry to the family. We have been in contact with the family to say that," Dr James Rice from the Women's and Children's Hospital said.

Marshall said the state government is expanding the paediatric services at the Lyell McEwin Hospital and at the Flinders Medical Centre.

In other news, Michigan-based Helen Devos Children's hospital doctors are concerned with the over 200 percent increase in cases of Covid-19. The reason is not coronavirus, but the rare disease that a child can develop after contracting Covid-19, reported FOX 17.

“We’re very anxious about the possibility of seeing more cases of MIS-C, given how many more cases of Covid-19 we’ve seen diagnosed in our pediatric population,” said Pediatric Infectious Disease Division Chief Dr. Rosemary Olivero.

MIS-C is described as a rare inflammatory disease children can get after suffering from Covid-19. Symptoms of MIS-C include watery diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, sunburn-like rash, and swelling or puffiness in the hands and feet. It is said to affect as many as 2 percent of all children infected with Covid-19, but that number might change.

“I wish I had a much more firm number, so we can predict how much more we’re going to see,” Olivero said. She shared that they do anticipate seeing more cases as more children are being infected, even though the disease is rare.

“We actually have a record number of kids that are admitted to the hospital right now in Michigan, that we’ve never seen before. This is because we’ve let this circulate. So yes, it’s worrisome. Yes, get vaccinated,” said Dr. Jameson, an infectious disease specialist at St. Mary's.