Aishwarya Aswath spent two hours in the Perth Children s Hospital waiting room for a fever on April 3, before she was triaged in the second-least urgent category, dying soon after seeing a specialist.
An internal report into her death found the girl had succumbed to an infection related to group A streptococcus, with Western Australian Health Minister Roger Cook conceding neither she nor her family received the appropriate level of care the night they attended the hospital. However, the review found no individual was responsible for the lack of care showed to the family and that staffing shortages weren t a contributing factor in the situation. The girl s death followed months of concerns about understaffing and treatment delays at hospitals across Perth. When Aishwarya was taken to hospital staff placed her in the second-least urgent category.
The West Australian health minister has apologised to the parents of seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath after she died at a Perth hospital emergency room, saying she should have had better care.