Sandipan Dhar inquest probes whether timely blood test could have prevented toddler's death

Australia Broadcast Center

20-05-2025

A hospital nurse and junior doctor tasked with treating a Perth toddler who died from an undiagnosed form of leukaemia say they can't remember his distressed parents insisting on a blood test.
At the heart of a coronial inquest into the death of Sandipan Dhar is the question of whether a blood test could have indeed prevented his death.
The 21-month old died at Joondalup Health Campus in March 2024, with a post-mortem revealing he had acute blastoma leukaemia.
He had been taken to the hospital's emergency department twice after suffering a persistent fever for several weeks, following routine vaccinations.
Sandipan's parents said they requested blood tests on the first occasion, and had a referral from a GP, but claimed they were not listened to.
Coroner Sarah Linton is presiding over the inquest and said the court would probe whether a full blood test during Sandipan's first ED visit might have flagged his blood disease and saved his life.
After their first visit, the family went home with their child but his condition deteriorated and they returned two days later on March 24 .
Sandipan died that evening.
The court heard in the opening address there was conflicting evidence as to whether the family chose to leave the ED against advice or were told they could leave.
Carlo Rocchiccioloi was the allocated nurse on the first ED visit and told the court Sandipan looked well.
The court heard Mr Rocchiccioloi did not make a note of a request from the family for blood tests.
"I would document it in the notes if it was a repeated or insistent request perhaps," he told the court.
Dr Caolan O'Hearrain, who was the junior doctor on duty, told the court blood tests were mentioned in relation to the letter from the GP, but the requests were not insistent.
"They [had] gone to their GP a few times and their GP had sent them in looking to get bloods done," he told the court.
Alarm bells didn't sound for Dr O'Hearrain because he said Sandipan's fever was not constant.
He said he was reassured by the fact the toddler's temperature and heart rate had come down.
Meanwhile, Dr Sanjeev Rana from the Key Largo Medical Centre assessed Sandipan twice before he died, once on March 20 and again on March 22.
Dr Rana initially diagnosed Sandipan with tonsillitis and prescribed him antibiotics, but advised his parents to come back in two days given his fever since his immunisations.
During the second appointment it became clear that Sandipan was not responding to the medication and his fever persisted.
"I wasn't sure about my diagnosis, I wasn't sure about what was going on," Dr Rana told the court.
"This is a kid with a fever for three weeks.
"On that day he had a temperature of 38.3C and he looked miserable.
"I just couldn't ignore the parental concern."
He wrote a letter for the parents to take to hospital requesting a blood test and further examination.
But the court heard Sandipan's deterioration "could not be reversed" when they presented to the Joondalup ED.
Only Sandipan's father, Sanjoy Dhar, was in court on Tuesday.
Coroner Linton gave her condolences to Sandipan's mother, Saraswati, as did three doctors who assessed Sandipan at the medical centre in the days and weeks leading up to his death.
However, Mr Dhar only accepted one of the doctors' condolences.
"These are by force … I should have heard it one year prior, not today," he said outside court.
"I only can accept the apology from Dr Rana because I can see that it came from his heart. The rest I don't."
The inquest continues.