‘Absolute nightmare': How this family's Brisbane trip turned from holiday to hospital horror
Originally from Sri Lanka, the Melbourne-based IT worker has lived in Australia for the past six years. His mother, Welgampalage Mary Irene Perera, came to visit him and for an extended stay with her sister.
But about a month into her trip, as Perera was enjoying her time in Queensland, she was suddenly struck with severe stomach pain, and told by a local GP to rush straight to hospital.
Despite requests from the family to have her taken to the Mater Hospital – part of the network of private providers honoured by her insurer HCF – Perera was instead taken by ambulance to the public Princess Alexandra Hospital, where she was admitted.
There, tests confirmed diverticulitis – a condition involving inflammation or infection in the wall of the bowel.
Perera's prognosis was serious. The infected part of her bowel wall had ruptured, which could be a trigger for its contents seeping into her abdominal cavity and causing life-threatening sepsis.
Achala expected his mother would receive urgent surgery, as initially indicated by emergency doctors.
But HCF demanded evidence she wasn't suffering a pre-existing condition before approving her insurance claim, which required Perera's medical history from her GP back in Sri Lanka.
She was instead given a course of antibiotics and discharged on July 28, four days after being admitted.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Australian
6 hours ago
- The Australian
Pregnant drivers warned over dangerous seatbelt mistake
I was heavily pregnant and running late. Then I hit a pothole – hard. For a moment I felt like I was auditioning for Fast & Furious: Prenatal Drift. Cue panic. I pulled over and Googled: 'Driving over pothole pregnancy'. The results? Terrifying. Phrases like 'placental abruption', 'seek immediate care', and 'avoid at all costs', jumped out at me. There is no evidence that going over potholes harms the foetus. MORE: 'Huge threat': Fears over common Temu buy Could one bump in the road, at low speed, really put my baby at risk? Thankfully, no. 'There is no evidence that going over speed bumps or potholes at low, reasonable speeds harms the foetus,' says Associate Professor Stefan Kane, director of maternity services at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne. 'There is no data linking this to miscarriage or preterm labour at normal speeds.' But the real danger lies elsewhere. 'Sadly, motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of trauma-related maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality,' says Associate Professor Kane. 'Risk of injury increases during the second and third trimesters … However, proper seatbelt use significantly reduces the risk of the baby dying in crashes.' Yet many pregnant drivers don't wear their seatbelts properly. Many pregnant drivers don't wear their seatbelts properly. Picture: Getty Images. Obstetrician Dr Guy Skinner often sees women pushing the sash belt up high behind them, thinking it's safer or more comfortable for the bump. 'There's no point wearing a seatbelt if it hasn't done its primary thing and that's to slow the human body from hitting the dashboard or seat in front of you,' he says. And those maternity seatbelt adjusters sold online cheaply through businesses like Temu, Ebay and Facebook Marketplace? Remove from cart! The advice is to use a normal seatbelt properly. Experts warn maternity seatbelt adjusters don't help in any way. Picture: AliExpress MORE: Direct threat': Temu hits back over 'fake' claims Associate Professor Sjaan Koppel from the Monash University Accident Research Centre explains the right way to buckle up: 'The lap belt should be placed below the baby bump, snugly across the pelvis and upper thighs. Never across or above the abdomen,' she says. The belt should be placed below the baby bump. Picture: Getty Images. 'The shoulder (sash) belt should run between the breasts and over the collarbone. Not under the arm or behind the back. Ensure the belt is flat and not twisted.' Beyond seatbelts, Dr Skinner says one of the most common questions he gets is: When should I stop driving? Back in the day, it was common advice to stop driving after around 32–34 weeks because steering wheels didn't retract, and bumps didn't fit behind them. Now, if you're carrying a single baby, it's usually safe to drive right up to the end of pregnancy. Multiples? You're more likely to be benched by 32 to 34 weeks, due to spatial logistics. And what about airbags? Contrary to some fears, they're safe and protective, as long as your bump isn't pressed right up against the wheel. Experts say pregnancy can change the way we drive. Picture: Getty Images. MORE: The hybrid delivering more for less Low-speed crashes, such as carpark fender-benders or knocking into poles, are surprisingly common during pregnancy. 'We see them every three to four weeks,' Dr Skinner says. 'It's probably due to some change in concentration in pregnant women.' He claims minor bingles at low speed (under 20 km/h) are unlikely to cause concern. So, while a pothole won't send you into labour, experts say pregnancy can change the way we drive, and not always for the better. If it means easing into the Driving Miss Daisy era a little early? It might be the safest move, for mum and bub.
News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
‘Stroke, heart attack, broke': Melbourne GP who refused to give Covid jabs is on his knees
Mark Hobart is still reckoning with the pandemic's legacy. The Melbourne GP who was caught up in a public fight between medicine and morality is counting the cost of what's been taken from him. He first lost his patients. Then his clinic shuttered. His licence was suspended next and his bank accounts slowly emptied. The heart attack came in May of 2023. The stroke came around Christmas a year later. Now, after a five-year struggle to restore his old life, he is coming to grips with the fact that it's gone. Dr Hobart, whose career in medicine was abruptly ripped away from him for refusing to administer Covid-19 vaccines during Melbourne's lockdowns, has recently been subjected to further indignity. The 67-year-old has been forced to apply for jobs in fields he is neither qualified or capable. 'I applied for a job as a warehouse operator but I got knocked back, that was a blow to my ego,' he said. But the biggest blow is being forced to sell his Sunshine North clinic, run out of the family home where his mother and father both practiced medicine since the 1950s. 'I've got to the stage now where I've run out of money, I've run out of options,' he told 'I'm selling the practice. I'm selling the building. It's been unoccupied for almost four years. I'm not going to get my license back. I've been through too much mental trauma. 'I've got enough to eat, I try to keep fit walking the dogs. But when you stop working after almost 40 years there is a big hole in your life. I'm OK, I'm just taking stock of what to do.' Dr Hobart had been working out of the surgery in Melbourne's north since 1985. A graduate of Melbourne University, he spent time at some of the city's best hospitals including St Vincent's, the Royal Children's Hospital and the Royal Women's Hospital. He was always going to return home to 68 McIntyre Road in Sunshine North to follow in his parents' footsteps. He has fond memories of being raised there and attending the local state school at Sunshine. 'That's where I grew up,' he says. 'I lived there until I was about nine or 10 years old.' The building is now empty. The phone doesn't ring. The waiting room doesn't have patients. A sign on the front window is a reminder of the storm that turned his life upside down. 'The Victorian Government has banned patients from entering this surgery because Dr Hobart refused to surrender your private and confidential patient files,' it reads. But Dr Hobart says that's only part of the story. 'Your practice is now closed' In an exclusive interview with the grandfather-of-three revealed what happened in late 2021 when authorised officers under the direction of then-Premier Daniel Andrews and then-Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton stormed his clinic. He says his first run-in with authorities was on Friday, October 29, 2021, when two officers arrived at the clinic and told him, 'We want all your files to do with vaccine and mask exemptions'. The officers had received a tip-off that Dr Hobart was administering vaccine exemptions to dozens of patients. 'They said to me, 'If you don't want to give them to us, you can say so on the grounds that it might incriminate you'. So I said, 'Easy, OK, I don't want to give them to you'. 'They came back on Monday and asked again. I said, 'I'm not giving them to you, they're private and confidential patient files'. 'They said, 'Under new laws, there is no such thing as private and confidential patient files'. They then said, 'Don't make us do this to you'. They stepped out of the room for a minute, came back in and said, 'As of now, your practice is closed and no patient is to enter the building until we say so'.' On November 10, it got even messier. 'Seven authorised officers came to the surgery that day and I wouldn't have done this now but I let them in. They didn't have a warrant or anything and they ordered me to give them the patient files. 'I said I wouldn't do that and they told me they weren't leaving without them 'even if it takes all night'. 'They were intimidating, going through all my files. They were there for a couple of hours. I received an email from AHPRA (the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) the next morning at 8.30am saying I was suspended.' The decision means Dr Hobart cannot work in any area of medicine. 'I can't work in administration, counselling, teaching, anything in health or they threaten to send me to jail. So it limits my capacity. Wife's a bit stressed about it all. Kids too. I've been totally screwed around.' Officially, Dr Hobart has been accused of professional misconduct and being a danger to the public over the administering of fake vaccination exemptions and the anti-parasitic drug, Ivermectin. He denies any wrongdoing and 'maintains he fulfilled his duty to his patients at all times'. No criminal charges or findings have been made against him. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal will decide early next year whether he can ever work in medicine again. 'Sh** really hit the fan' 'I'm not anti-vaxxer,' Dr Hobart said. 'I gave my kids all the childhood vaccines. I used to have the flu vaccine all the time. This was different.' The Covid-19 vaccine mandates were introduced in Victoria in September of 2021 under State of Emergency powers. Initial mandates only applied to high-risk settings to reduce transmission of the virus that had killed 861 people in Victoria at that point. By October, the scope for mandates had been broadened to include all general workers. 'That's when the sh** really hit the fan,' Dr Hobart said. 'I had so many terrified patients, it was unbelievable. They were at my door crying, saying 'I can't have the vaccine but I need to work, I need to pay my mortgage'. 'So what I did was give them a three-month temporary vaccination exemption for 'acute severe medical illness'. That's all you had to put. 'Of course 'acute severe medical illness' was acute severe depression and anxiety. When I had the opportunity to ask these people if they had experienced suicidal ideation, I'd say 50 cent said they had.' Dr Hobart claims mental health exemptions were not included in the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) guidelines at the time but were later added. He told that he did what he thought was right at the time but with the benefit of hindsight he might have 'kept a low profile'. Instead, he spoke up for those who were against vaccination mandates and wrote letters to every Health Minister and Chief Health Officer in the country. 'Should I have done it differently? Kept a low profile? I wasn't aware of the immensity of the battle we were having. It's a worldwide movement to vaccinate everybody and they were not going to stop at anything. 'I didn't know that at the time. I thought this would be over in three months but they never did come to their senses. I'm quite happy in my own mind that I think I did the right thing and followed the medical ethics I was taught at medical school. 'I'm perplexed by how most doctors went along with it. They were scared. They were scared to stand up against it. And they were right basically.' According to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, more than 65 million Covid-19 vaccinations were administered in Australia up to March 2023. The number of total adverse events reported was 137,970. There have been 14 deaths linked to the vaccination and no deaths in children or adolescents, the TGA says. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 21,000 Australians died 'from or with Covid-19' between March 2020 and January 24. The underlying cause of death for more than 17,000 of those was Covid-19. Dr Hobart's Sunshine North clinic will go to auction on October 4, marking the end of an era for a family clinic that has been operating since 1956.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Absolute nightmare': How this family's Brisbane trip turned from holiday to hospital horror
Don Achala didn't expect to be fighting for his mother to get life-saving emergency surgery while she was on holiday in Brisbane. Originally from Sri Lanka, the Melbourne-based IT worker has lived in Australia for the past six years. His mother, Welgampalage Mary Irene Perera, came to visit him and for an extended stay with her sister. But about a month into her trip, as Perera was enjoying her time in Queensland, she was suddenly struck with severe stomach pain, and told by a local GP to rush straight to hospital. Despite requests from the family to have her taken to the Mater Hospital – part of the network of private providers honoured by her insurer HCF – Perera was instead taken by ambulance to the public Princess Alexandra Hospital, where she was admitted. There, tests confirmed diverticulitis – a condition involving inflammation or infection in the wall of the bowel. Perera's prognosis was serious. The infected part of her bowel wall had ruptured, which could be a trigger for its contents seeping into her abdominal cavity and causing life-threatening sepsis. Achala expected his mother would receive urgent surgery, as initially indicated by emergency doctors. But HCF demanded evidence she wasn't suffering a pre-existing condition before approving her insurance claim, which required Perera's medical history from her GP back in Sri Lanka. She was instead given a course of antibiotics and discharged on July 28, four days after being admitted.
