Baby Elijah. Source: Herald Sun
A DOCTOR who treated Elijah Slavkovic at Canberra Hospital after the baby had been transferred through two rural NSW facilities has offered condolences to the boy's mum - but believes staff there did everything possible to save the child's life.
The fourth-month-old died in June 2009 from kidney failure after contracting bacterial meningitis while holidaying with his parents on the NSW South Coast.
Dr Ian Crawshaw, a paediatric specialist at Canberra Hospital, today told an inquest into the baby's death he wanted to extend his condolences to Elijah's mother Sandra Bernobic for the "unbelievable trauma" she had suffered in losing her son.
The baby was initially taken to the small Pambula Hospital, where the paediatric ward had been closed several months earlier, before he was transported to the emergency department at Bega Hospital.
There he waited for nearly four hours with a high fever and other symptoms before he was given potentially life saving antibiotic treatment, the inquest heard.
He was then transferred to the larger Canberra Hospital for specialist care.
Dr Crawshaw said he initially believed staff at Canberra were dealing with a "septic child" when he arrived early in the morning, but a few hours later his condition seemed to have improved further.
"I thought at that stage he actually looked a little brighter ... his skin had a better colour and he was more attentive," he said.
But by the mid afternoon Elijah had suffered a number of seizures and his brain function had deteriorated, the inquest was told.
"He really was nothing like when I had seen him at midday - he wasn't attentive, he wasn't looking around," Dr Crawshaw said.
Elijah was later transported to the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick as Canberra Hospital had no paediatric intensive-care unit for his ongoing treatment.
When he was admitted he already had serious, permanent brain damage and he was eventually transferred to a Melbourne hospital to be closer to his Victoria-based family as he received palliative care for his now-terminal illness.
Dr Crawshaw today told the inquest the "most appropriate" treatment for Elijah's symptoms would have been the early administration of antibiotics.
"I would like to reassure (his mother) that I think we did everything we could do at Canberra Hospital," he said.
The inquest was today adjourned until April while the results of a pilot program for treating infants who showed signs of sepsis were put together and the scheme was rolled out in hospitals across the state.
The draft guidelines promoted the use of antibiotics within an hour for any child with a fever above 38.5 degrees - a temperature Elijah had cleared by the time he arrived at Bega Hospital.
Outside the court, Ms Bernobic said she was happy to wait another six months to see if Elijah's death had led to meaningful change in the health system.
"It will never bring back Elijah, but if we can save another child ... I've been told by people in that courtroom that this is going to save lives, and that's massive," she said.
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