Beaudesert teenager Alex Dwyer is spending his school holidays in hospital.

By Susie Cunningham
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A BEAUDESERT teenager suffering from a severe case of appendicitis is lucky to be alive after being sent home by a doctor at Beaudesert Hospital.

After being diagnosed with a “stomach bug”, Beaudesert State High School student Alex Dwyer, 14, subsequently suffered a burst appendix that required life saving surgery at Logan Hospital before he was transferred to the Mater Children’s Hospital for another two operations.

When he was finally operated on at Logan Hospital, it was discovered that Alex’s appendix had not only burst, but had turned gangrenous.

The chain of events has traumatised the Dwyer family and has resulted in Alex’s mother, Olivia, demanding answers from health authorities.

It has also raised serious questions about Beaudesert Hospital and its capacity to diagnose and treat seriously ill patients.

Alex, who has left hemiparesis cerebral palsy that requires a permanent shunt to drain fluid from his brain, was initially taken to Beaudesert Hospital on the evening of Friday, June 24 by Ms Dwyer in excruciating pain with what she suspected was appendicitis.

After a wait of at least one hour, she alleges the doctor on duty diagnosed a stomach bug, administered two needles and paracetamol and sent Alex home, despite her assertion it was appendicitis.

By Saturday morning, Alex’s condition had further deteriorated and as a result Ms Dwyer took him to Beaudesert Medical Centre where Dr Karen Love immediately diagnosed appendicitis and recommended that Ms Dwyer take him straight back to Beaudesert Hospital for urgent medical treatment.

On returning to the hospital, the doctor on duty agreed with the diagnosis, immediately administered morphine for pain control and contacted Logan Hospital.

However with no ambulance immediately available, Ms Dwyer alleges the doctor advised her to drive Alex to the hospital herself.

“The doctor actually said to me, ‘look, you are better off taking him to Logan Hospital because the ambulance could take hours to get here’,” she said.

“I said he had a shunt, that he’s high risk and that infection could get to the brain if the appendix bursts. The ambulance should have rushed him ... the doctor just said I would be better off getting him there myself.”

Ms Dwyer is furious that doctors at Beaudesert Hospital were allegedly not concerned the appendicitis could affect how the shunt drained fluid from Alex’s brain to his abdominal cavity.

She said the doctor at Logan Hospital immediately recognised the severity of the situation and called a neurosurgeon at the Mater Hospital to discuss the case.

After undergoing surgery at Logan Hospital on Saturday night, Alex was transported to the Mater Children’s Hospital on Sunday, where he had surgery to externalise his shunt. Ms Dwyer said she believed something needed to be done to address the situation at Beaudesert Hospital.

“It seems that they are a halfway house for Logan Hospital. What is the point of going to Beaudesert Hospital if you have to drive the patient through to Logan Hospital anyway,” she said.

Alex underwent a third operation yesterday (Tuesday) to internalise his shunt so that it drained into his chest. In three months time he faces yet another operation to put the shunt back into his abdominal cavity.

Rural Doctor’s Association Queensland (RDAQ) president, Dr Ewan McPhee, said it was not uncommon for there to be a delay in the diagnosis of appendicitis.

“It doesn’t always present in a typical way, and delay in diagnosis is not uncommon,” he said.

Queensland Health's response click here.