Latest news with #DonAchala
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Health
- 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.
The Age
5 days ago
- Health
- The Age
‘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.
