By ALAN PERROTT
A teenager with undiagnosed meningococcal disease was left untreated by doctors at North Shore Hospital for more than two hours on the day he died.
The statement came during the second day of an inquest at the North Shore District Court into the death of 17-year-old Glen Fisher at
North Shore Hospital on August 4, 1998.
Mr Fisher's family blame his death on diagnostic error and the hospital's system of attributing patient care to individual doctors and prioritising patients.
Glen Fisher's GP had diagnosed him with the flu. He became seriously ill overnight and his brother took him to North Shore Hospital in the morning suffering headaches, sore eyes, muscle weakness, diarrhoea and fluctuating temperature. The diagnosis was repeated.
Despite treatment with drugs that afternoon, Mr Fisher died at 9 pm.
The hospital's medical staff said the symptoms were not consistent with those expected from someone suffering from meningitis.
While Mr Fisher has some signs of meningococcal disease, doctors told the inquest he lacked major symptoms such as a fever, and he had diarrhoea, which is not commonly associated with the disease.
They said it took several hours to revise the early diagnosis of a viral infection to meningitis.
Dr Heather Gardner, one of two medical registrars involved in Mr Fisher's treatment, said no doctors took personal responsibility for his treatment until almost two and a half hours after he was moved from the hospital's emergency department.
The delay occurred despite Mr Fisher being categorised as P1 upon arrival at the acute assessment ward, meaning he was to be examined as soon as a doctor was free.
When another registrar, Dr Weldon Chiu, did begin treatment he was called away three times.
The pair disagreed on the way in which patients were prioritised for treatment.
Dr Gardner said yellow magnets were placed on a board next to a patient's name to allocate priority while Dr Chiu said he was unaware of any such system. Both said North Shore Hospital had no written protocol for prioritising patients or for allocating responsibility for their care to doctors.
Dr Anthony Frankel, a senior medical consultant at North Shore Hospital, said patient care was a team effort.
