Danial Khan was recording as tragedy unfolded. Photo / 60 Minutes
Danial Khan was recording as tragedy unfolded. Photo / 60 Minutes
When Australian couple Danial and Benish Khan's daughter Amelia was born, she was perfectly healthy - then it was decided she needed oxygen.
As Danial Khan's camera recorded, the tiny newborn was connected to a pipe that instead delivered poison.
The tragedy played out at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney in2016 and now the parents have spoken out and shared video from the day, telling 60 Minutes: "It's just something that haunts you forever."
After Amelia was delivered via caesarean it was decided that she needed oxygen to help with her first breaths.
When the gas was administered she did not respond well, suffocating as doctors and nurses panicked.
Danial's video shows the chaos in the operating theatre, his attempts to reassure his wife - and the chilling cries of his daughter.
Danial Khan tried to reassure his wife. Photo / 60 Minutes
"To this day, I remember that theatre, listening to her cries, the guessing, listening to them take that mask off for that couple of seconds, hearing her squealing, just not the sound that a baby makes," Benish told 60 Minutes. "It's just something that haunts you forever."
Instead of oxygen, she had been breathing nitrous oxide.
Brave Amelia survived the ordeal but was permanently brain-damaged.
"They were just like: 'More than 50 per cent of her brain is damaged and she will most likely not be able to move. She won't be able to eat. She won't even be able to come off life support without her passing away'," Benish told 60 Minutes.
Amelia had been given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen. Photo / 60 Minutes
The parents made the heartbreaking decision to switch off her life support, preparing to farewell their daughter.
"I've never buried anybody that's close to me and my family. I've never experienced that. So for me, in my mind, I was like, 'Wow, the first person I'm going to bury is my own daughter'," Danial told 60 Minutes. "I've never imagined that."
But she survived.
It wasn't until a month later that her parents learned the horrifying cause of her brain damage.
The couple were summoned to an emergency meeting at the hospital to be told another newborn baby – John Ghanem – had died after being given nitrous oxide instead of oxygen in the same operating theatre.
An error had been made when connecting new gas lines to the operating theatre, so that nitrous oxide was supplied from a port marked "oxygen".
Thirty-four babies were delivered without needing oxygen - until Amelia arrived.
The man responsible was Christopher Turner – the contractor who installed the pipes in 2015.
Last month, he was convicted in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court over the fatal mix-up.
Christopher Turner was fined over the fatal bungle. Photo / 60 Minutes
The court found Turner failed to carry out cross connection and oxygen concentration tests and signed certificates which showed he carried out safety checks that he never performed.
He was fined A$100,000 ($107,000).
Amelia has been left with lifelong quadriplegic cerebral palsy and intellectual disabilities, is unlikely to ever speak and will need care for the rest of her life.
"The extent of the harm caused is almost too awful to contemplate," Judge David Russell said in sentencing.
"I cannot think of a more tragic case. John Ghanem lost his life and his parents will live with their grief forever.
Amelia will need care for the rest of her life. Photo / 60 Minutes
"Amelia Khan has been condemned to a terrible existence. Her parents will have to provide care and assistance to Amelia and deal with their own grief."
Turner pleaded guilty to failing in his duty under the Work Health and Safety Act and was facing a maximum fine of A$150,000 ($160,000)
Judge Russell noted that the families might see the punishment as lenient but he had no scope under the law to deliver a harsher sentence.
Turner received a discount for co-operating with authorities and writing a letter expressing his remorse.
