
-With AAP
1. Toddler died in hospital after staff allegedly didn’t believe she swallowed a battery.
A toddler died in hospital after swallowing a button battery that went unnoticed by staff until it was too late, the Coroners Court of Victoria has heard.
Isabella Rees died in 2015 aged just 14-months-old. The coronial inquiry into her death began yesterday.
Her mother Allison Rees was the first to give evidence and shared heartbreaking details about her daughter’s final days.
According to Nine News, Rees said she and her husband took Isabella to Melbourne’s Sunshine Hospital four times over the space of two weeks.
She told the court that during the first visit Isabella was “limp and vomiting”.
She said her husband had seen Isabella holding an AA battery earlier that day, so he asked doctors if it was possible she had swallowed something. She said a doctor told them it was impossible she could have ingested a battery and whatever was inside her was just “passing through”.
Isabella was taken to hospital again three days later and prescribed antibiotics.
The court heard Isabella had symptoms including blackened faeces and a fever.
Rees said she took dirty nappies, blood clots found in Isabella’s cot and photos into the hospital to prove something was wrong but they were made to feel like they were overreacting.
“Because every time we went we had evidence … we were just disregarded and turned away.