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Kate Godden looked at her six-year-old son sitting in the bath and suddenly realised their life would never be the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew something was wrong,\u201d the Mooroopna resident said.<\/p>\n
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Carlos Godden Nava, now aged 12, with his mother Kate Godden.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Justin McManus<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cI had a complete freak-out, went out the back, broke down, and rang up the doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n Seven days earlier, Godden\u2019s son, Carlos Godden Nava, had been scratched or bitten by a relative\u2019s cat as it was startled by another child while Carlos was patting it, leaving Carlos bleeding from the eye.<\/p>\n Godden said she and Carlos\u2019 father Manuel had driven their crying son from Shepparton about two hours to the Royal Children\u2019s Hospital in Melbourne on the instructions of staff at the local hospital.<\/p>\n But Godden claims she was told by a younger doctor at the children\u2019s hospital that the scratch was superficial, and the family was sent home with instructions to see a GP in a week.<\/p>\n The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital in Melbourne.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Pat Scala<\/cite><\/p>\n As he sat in the bath on July 13 in 2017, Carlos\u2019 left eye opened up for the first time in days, and Kate was horrified to see that the eye had turned white.<\/p>\n Their local GP sent them back to the children\u2019s hospital, where Carlos was rushed into emergency surgery. Doctors managed to save his eye, which Kate said she was told was hours away from needing removal, but not his sight, as the eye had an extensive infection.<\/p>\n Now aged 12 and a keen basketballer, Carlos is blind in his left eye and was recently told that the eye will not grow with him as he grows older.<\/p>\n Carlos, then aged six, in the days after the cat attack.<\/span><\/p>\n As he prepares to begin high school next year, Carlos says he gets anxious when meeting new people because of the way his eye looks and gets worried about damaging his good eye.<\/p>\n It is still extremely painful for him to talk about what happened, but Carlos said: \u201cI want to tell my story because I don\u2019t want anyone going through what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n The Age <\/i>recently obtained an internal Safer Care Victoria report that revealed that there were at least 21 sentinel events relating to care of children in emergency departments between 2017 \u2013 the year of Carlos\u2019 accident \u2013 and June 2022.<\/p>\n Of these cases, regarded as \u201cwholly preventable\u201d and resulting in serious harm or death, 11 patients aged 18 or under died, nine permanently lost function and one required life-saving surgery.<\/p>\n The report found common contributing factors included delayed responses to patients whose condition was deteriorating, lack of experience among treating doctors or availability of senior staff, parent or caregiver concerns being overlooked, and communication issues.<\/p>\n It is not clear if Carlos\u2019 case formed part of the sentinel event report, and the hospital wouldn\u2019t say if the case was classified as such.<\/p>\n Carlos and his family are being represented by law firm Slater and Gordon, who are investigating a medical negligence claim.<\/p>\n His lawyers argue that if Carlos had been properly diagnosed during his first visit to the Royal Children\u2019s Hospital and received \u201cappropriate treatment and communication in relation to his injury\u201d, on the balance of probability, the injury would have led to a \u201cless traumatic outcome\u201d.<\/p>\n They will allege that the doctor who saw Carlos on his first visit to the children\u2019s hospital \u201cshould have taken steps to adequately determine whether the laceration was superficial, which may have required examination under anaesthetic\u201d.<\/p>\n Godden said she had emphasised that her son\u2019s eye had been bleeding but was reassured the injury was superficial and was sent home with antibiotic eye cream, Nurofen and Panadol, and instructions to put a cold compress on the eye.<\/p>\n She said that she took Carlos to a local hospital in Shepparton either the next day or the following morning. They went to hospital again on July 11, because Godden was having trouble getting the eye cream into Carlos\u2019 eye, and then as he was unable to sleep because of the pain. It wasn\u2019t until a visit to the GP on July 13 that they were referred back to Melbourne.<\/p>\n Godden said they had received no apology from the Royal Children\u2019s Hospital and, as far as she was aware, there was no investigation into the alleged initial misdiagnosis of the severity of the injury.<\/p>\n The Royal Children\u2019s Hospital was asked if Carlos\u2019 case had been classified as a sentinel event, or if his treatment on July 6 in 2017 had been reviewed or investigated, but the hospital declined to comment.<\/p>\n Carlos in the days after his initial visit to the children\u2019s hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDue to hospital policy, we are unable to comment on individual patients,\u201d a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n Godden said Carlos had to repeat a year of school after the injury because he had missed many months of class as the result of not being confident around others. She said the entire family, including Carlos\u2019 dad and two older brothers, had been left traumatised.<\/p>\n \u201cMe, I just plod along and think I\u2019m OK and then little things happen that bring it all back,\u201d Godden said. \u201cI constantly feel like it is my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n After a spate of preventable child deaths and harm in emergency departments, the Victorian government recently announced it would introduce an escalation process for parents who are concerned about the care being provided to their children.<\/p>\n Slater and Gordon senior legal counsel Shari Liby said it was essential that every hospital that accepted paediatric patients had the resources and skills necessary to appropriately diagnose and treat the children who attend for help.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen children are sick or injured, their parents\u2019 first port of call quite often is their local emergency department,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI have seen quite a number of cases over the years where the emergency department\u2019s lack of experience or expertise in children\u2019s medical issues has resulted in critical things being missed. The consequences when this happens can be devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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