Latest news with #StarshipHospital
RNZ News
6 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Indian parents fight to clear name after child abuse conviction saw baby seized
An Indian couple are fighting to clear their names after the mother was jailed for child abuse. Photo: Supplied An Indian family has spent six years battling government agencies to prove their innocence after Oranga Tamariki seized their 10-week-old baby in 2018 and sent the mother to prison for child abuse. Their story has since been reported on Newsroom's Fractured podcast by investigative journalist Melanie Reid. Zita and Ravi, who spoke on condition of anonymity, have spent the past six years navigating New Zealand's child protection and immigration systems in a bid to overturn an allegation that turned their lives upside-down. Their ordeal started when their 8-week-old baby was taken to Starship Hospital in 2018, referred by their GP for suspected meningitis. A CT scan revealed a non-depressed linear skull fracture and subdural haemorrhages - bleeding between the skull and the brain. A full-body X-ray showed fractures in 18 ribs, as well as in the baby's left femur and tibia - 39 fractures in total. Blood tests revealed extremely low levels of calcium and vitamin D. Within 24 hours, hospital specialists concluded the injuries were non-accidental. Baby K, as she is referred to, was hospitalised for 12 days before being placed in foster care. In 2021, Zita was convicted of intentionally injuring her newborn daughter and sentenced to two years and seven months in prison. Starship Hospital Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly During the three-week trial, four Starship doctors testified that the injuries were consistent with abusive head trauma. No medical experts appeared in Zita's defence, and she has consistently denied harming her child. Meanwhile, Baby K was moved between four different foster homes. Ravi, who has no criminal convictions, was repeatedly denied custody by Oranga Tamariki until April this year. When Zita was released after serving most of her sentence, the state maintained custody of Baby K and began deportation proceedings against her. Ravi, whose visa depended on his wife's, also faced deportation. He is currently in the process of applying for an extension to his visa. Zita came to New Zealand hopeful of a bright future but is now thinking of leaving after years of hardship and separation from her daughter. "I came to New Zealand with so many dreams, but now I'm thinking of leaving," she said. Zita said her dream of building a life in New Zealand had been shattered. After spending two years in prison over what she and her husband claim was a miscarriage of justice, she is struggling to rebuild her life. "Finally, I got a work visa in March, but the problem is I can't find a job because of my prison sentence," she said. "I just want my convictions overturned so I can live a normal life with my husband and daughter." The couple now live apart due to financial hardship related to housing. Zita lives with her brother, while her husband Ravi and their young daughter share accommodation with relatives. "I've lost so much since it all began," Zita said. "I lost my daughter, my family, my father and the chance to live in New Zealand without fear." Awaiting trial in 2019, Zita was informed that her father had died in India, but she was unable to attend the funeral because her passport was being held by the court. Zita recalled her early days in prison with anguish. "I didn't eat for weeks," she said. "I cried all the time." Ravi, who came to New Zealand on a partner visa, was also facing immigration challenges. The couple initially tried to to seek support from the Indian community but were disappointed by the results. "We thought that because we were Indians, our people would stand by us," Ravi said. "Unfortunately, that didn't happen." One exception was the Supreme Sikh Society, which provided a letter of support in 2023. The two years that Zita spent behind bars were some of the hardest of Ravi's life. "After the doctors were convinced we harmed our baby, the system took over and pointed fingers at us," he said. "They created a narrative that there were problems between me and my wife, that we had injured the baby. "But no one really told us how she got all those fractures - until the media brought in experts who finally explained it." He believed they had been treated as outsiders by every government agency they encountered. Meanwhile, their daughter had spent much of her life in foster care. "She doesn't know anything about Indian culture," Zita said. "We're trying our best to teach her Indian values and traditions," Ravi said. The couple had repeatedly asked Oranga Tamariki to place their daughter with an Indian family or with their own relatives in New Zealand, but their requests were denied. Zita and Ravi said they made a heartbreaking decision to terminate a second pregnancy in 2019, fearing Oranga Tamariki would remove the baby at birth. Joris de Bres Photo: Supplied Former Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres has been working with the couple for several years. "We've been on a roller-coaster ride the whole time and it's only in the last month really that we've got to the point where there's some light at the end of the tunnel, but there were still challenges to overcome," de Bres said. "They've been hounded by the police. They had their house bugged and they've been through a court case and the mother jailed. There's something wrong here." De Bres believed that ethnicity played a role. "I can attribute it to a degree of institutional racism and a general racial attitude within the state. You know, I was with the Race Relations Commission for 10 years, so I'm familiar with this situation," he said. "If you're a new arrival from another country and your skin colour is different from that of the majority, you're already starting at a disadvantage - especially when dealing with the system and even some of the people within it." Journalists Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner are behind Newsroom's investigative podcast, Fractured. Photo: Supplied De Bres eventually contacted investigative journalists Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner. Reid said the case was especially difficult. "It's about someone accused of abusing a child, which makes it unpopular - and you're up against the medical fraternity," she said. Over 18 months, Reid and her team obtained Baby K's medical records, including high-resolution 3D CT scans and X-rays. They consulted four leading international specialists in genetics, neurosurgery, obstetrics and neuropathology from Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and the United States. Each submitted a formal report. Their collective conclusion: Baby K's injuries were likely related to complications during labour and severely low levels of vitamin D. "One of the main takeaways from the podcast after two seasons is that you just have to keep going until you get that result," Reid said, "because there are so many points along the way where it gets too hard, and people just give up." Sumner agreed. "We couldn't figure out why Ravi couldn't see his daughter and there were so many injustices we could identify even before we started our investigation," Sumner said. A year after Zita's release from prison, Oranga Tamariki began allowing Zita regular supervised access with her daughter. In February, Newsroom unveiled that Zita's deportation had been cancelled after Associate Minister Chris Penk intervened. In April, the Family Court in Auckland discharged any remaining orders relating to Baby K. Restrictions on Baby K's travel were lifted, she was no longer in state care and custody was returned to her parents. Zita and Ravi believed Oranga Tamariki had come to realise the parents might not have been at fault, a shift they attributed to media pressure and new evidence uncovered by Newsroom journalists. "In the beginning, they told us we wouldn't get our daughter back until she was 18," Zita said. "They haven't admitted they got it wrong, but they've now granted us custody. So why did they make that decision?" "Things slowly began to change after the podcast was released," Ravi said. "Oranga Tamariki started listening to us and tried to understand our culture, which was completely different from how they were in the beginning." In May, the Fractured podcast announced that the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) had accepted Zita's submission for review, paving the way for a potential referral to an appeal court. Reid said the young couple faced ongoing challenges in New Zealand. "We got the medical experts, we got a lawyer on board and we made the application to the CCRC - but every step of the way was really tough," Reid said. "It was tough for us, let alone what it was like for them. I think the podcast really shows what it's truly like when you're up against it and there's absolutely no hope at all." In February, RNZ put the allegations to Starship Hospital. Mike Shepherd, Te Whatu Ora's group director of operations for Auckland City Hospital, said the hospital could not comment on the specifics of the case "for a range of reasons." "As always, we encourage patients and whānau to reach out to us directly if they have concerns about their or their loved one's care," he said. "Alternatively, people are welcome to contact the Health and Disability Commission for an independent review. "We are confident of the expertise of our Starship Child Protection team and the work they do in conjunction with New Zealand Police and other relevant agencies." For Zita and Ravi, a long road lay ahead, but the couple remained hopeful. "I've lost so many years, and with the CCRC process, it will take even more time to get back to normality," Zita said. "I'm not planning much because the last time I did, things didn't end well. My only dream is to live with my husband and daughter as a family."
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
See the shocking injury boy, 11, suffered when he was IMPALED on a metal pole while celebrating his brother's birthday at footy final
A young Auckland FC supporter has suffered a shocking injury after being impaled on a metal pole while leaving the A-League semifinal on Saturday evening, turning a family birthday celebration into a night of distress. Jude, a passionate 11-year-old football fan, was leaving the Mt Smart Stadium with his family after Auckland's 2-0 loss when the incident occurred. 'Just after we'd crossed the main road, Jude was walking just in front of me – not seeing a waratah (metal pole), randomly sticking out of the ground,' Jude's mother Mary explained to The New Zealand Herald. 'Next I heard him cry out and looked down to see blood and yellow flesh coming out of his shin where the waratah had impaled [him]. 'We realised he would need to go to the hospital, so I went with Jude in a taxi, waving to my husband and other three children who were all looking very worried.' A football scarf was used as a tourniquet to slow down the bleeding before Jude was rushed to Starship Children's Hospital for emergency surgery. 'We arrived at Starship and Jude was in agony,' Mary said. 'While waiting to be seen [he] started sobbing saying, 'I feel so awful for Wilf (Jude's younger brother), it's his birthday!'.' The injury, which fortunately missed major tendons, will sideline Jude from playing football for up to a month, causing him to miss out on upcoming tournaments. Jude's mother was perplexed as to how the metal pole had been allowed to be placed where it had been. 'Jude was very lucky that it didn't go into tendons or muscle,' she said. 'I would not want this to happen to anyone else and want to ensure that this is dealt with so that this or worse doesn't happen to anyone else.' Auckland Council told the Herald that the pole has now been removed. 'Unfortunately, that was too late for Jude and we're hoping he has a speedy recovery and is able to get back onto the football field as quickly as possible,' a spokesperson said.
RNZ News
12-05-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Kāinga Ora Auckland home deemed unfit for living after multiple pleas from tenant
By Al Williams, Open Justice reporter of The woman's child was hospitalised with bronchial conditions after living in a Kāinga Ora home that was eventually deemed unfit for tenancy. File image. Photo: 123RF A young child living in a damp Kāinga Ora property was admitted to Starship Hospital suffering from croup and bronchiolitis during a two-year ordeal that eventually meant the rental property was deemed unfit for tenancy. The child's mother repeatedly raised concerns with Kāinga Ora, while the family's GP went as far as to ask for the organisation to move the family out of the damp Auckland home. Now Kāinga Ora has apologised after being taken to the Tenancy Tribunal, which has found the organisation's failure to maintain the property contributed to the child's poor health. It has been ordered to compensate the woman thousands of dollars for emotional harm, losses and her time. According to a recently released tribunal decision, the woman and her children, including a baby, moved into the Freemans Bay unit in March 2022. By September, it was obvious there were issues with excessive moisture, including mould in the laundry, the kitchen cupboards and bumps on the kitchen floor. The landlord visited the premises and established that work was required to fix the issues, which was completed in February 2023. However, in early May 2023, one of the woman's young children was admitted to Starship Hospital suffering from croup and bronchiolitis. She again told the landlord about the excessive mould in their home and the difficulties she was experiencing in keeping it warm and dry. She also said her children had been suffering from respiratory issues and one of them had been admitted to hospital for related conditions. The following month she provided the landlord with a letter from the family GP who requested the family be moved. The children had both been suffering from recurrent respiratory infections, the house was quite cold, and mould was growing on the windows. The GP said the condition of the house was likely to be contributing to their health conditions. In September the GP raised concerns a second time in writing, through the tenant, telling the landlord that readings taken by the tenant showed 80 percent humidity. The GP said conditions in the premises were "almost certainly" exacerbating one of the children's health conditions. An asset manager for Kāinga Ora visited the home and noted a number of maintenance issues, including cracked glass on a window and a cracked shower well wall lining. However, no other obvious sources of moisture or dampness were identified, and it was recommended the woman continue to manage normal condensation on windows, including ventilating and wiping down surfaces. Her concerns about the children's health and wanting to move were acknowledged but the organisation was unable to link their illnesses to major property defects. It was instead suggested that transfer options be explored on other grounds. In March 2024, a new case manager for the landlord visited the property and requested a moisture report. A child was hospitalised because of poor conditions in a damp Kāinga Ora property. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly The report concluded the property was not fit for tenancy because of excessive humidity and moisture readings. Most walls showed moisture or were dripping visually. "From being in the apartment for 15 to 20 minutes I was drenched, shower rooms humidity was excessive," the report stated. "There was noted to be a baby in this house and that kind of moisture could possibly affect comfort and health of this child, due to humidity and mould growth hazard." It was recorded that the front door, part of the kitchen, all of the upstairs (including the stairs themselves, the bathroom and both bedrooms) had "extremely high or high warning moisture content". Kāinga Ora took steps to move the tenant to another premises shortly after the report was issued and the tenancy ended in April 2024. The tenant told the Tenancy Tribunal she spent approximately two hours each day on top of her usual housekeeping addressing the mould. She said that included wiping the windows and the window frames, changing the sheets on the beds and lifting the mattresses off the beds. The curtains were full of mould and had to be changed. The tenant said that having dried every window in the house in the morning, by lunchtime the condensation on the windows would have returned and she would need to start again. Since moving into new premises in April 2024, her children's health had improved significantly. The family GP provided another letter saying that the improved living environment had resulted in fewer visits to the medical centre for viral infections. Kāinga Ora told the tribunal that repairs relating to the tenant's complaint of September 2022 weren't completed until February 2023 because of the time of the year, the number of resources and different tradespersons required. It said that given the amount of work required, this was a reasonable timeframe for the repairs. Following the asset manager's report in October 2023, the agency believed the property was in a reasonable state of repair and that further investigations were not required. Kāinga Ora referred to the timely manner in which it acted once the mould/moisture report was requested by the new case worker. Tribunal adjudicator Kate Henry said it was a case where a significant award for loss of amenity or rebate in rent should be made. Henry said the appropriate period of time for compensation should be in respect of the period of time after which the landlord should have completed the original repairs until when the repairs were completed; and in respect of the failure to investigate and take appropriate action should be from when it became clear that the tenant made it clear that the issues with moisture and mould were not resolved at the end of the tenancy. A total 395 days. The tenant was awarded $6857 compensation for loss of amenity. At the hearing, the tenant advised that the impact on her was significant. When describing how the matter affected her the tenant became tearful and said she felt like she was "failing her children". Henry said: "I find that it is more likely than not that the landlord's failure to maintain the premises at least contributed to her child's poor health. "While it is not open to me to award damages for personal injury, I find that knowing that the premises were at least contributing to her children's poor health and having her complaints fall on deaf ears, would have contributed to the tenant's emotional harm." She awarded $3000 for emotional harm to the tenant. It was also accepted that the tenant had spent a significant amount of time cleaning to manage the mould and trying to be heard by the landlord. She was awarded $5000 as compensation for her time. Kāinga Ora central and east Auckland regional director John Tubberty told NZME the organisation should have acted more quickly. "We apologise for the distress experienced by the tenant. "Once we were aware earlier repair work had not fixed the problem, we moved the tenant to another property and carried out the necessary repairs. "However, we should have addressed the issue quicker." - This story was first published by The New Zealand Herald.
