“The doctor sent him home twice and said it was just gastro. There will never be another loss that comes close to losing my child. It’s like a nerve has been severed and remains open and raw.”
When Michelle Degenhardt heard her son’s stomach pop and watch him vomit what looked like cola syrup, she knew something was seriously wrong.
Weeks prior, her 13-year-old Luca Raso had been vomiting and complaining of bad stomach pains, but the doctor who had recently arrived from Russia on a working visa, sent him home saying he was suffering from gastro.
Shortly afterwards Luca died of appendicitis and was misdiagnosed twice.
His mother Michelle broke down in tears as she read a letter on the final day of the inquest into is death.
Luca was misdiagnosed and died. Image: Nine news
“The pain is so big”
“I know the only thing you would ask is all the hows and all the whys as to how to stop this from happening again,” Ms Degenhardt said.
“It will never be fair that something so common and preventable took you from us,” she said.
“The pain is so big, we try hard to find your light everyday but the huge gaping hole you left is so clear.”
According to Nine, the counsel assisting the coroner Ragni Marthur found that “there were deficiencies in the examinations that were conducted” but “a clear division regarding the necessity for further tests”.
Luca was a courageous boy. Image: Nine news
“He was courageous”
The doctor in question Paul Bilokopytov denies Luca telling him, “it just hurts everywhere”, “my belly is sore” and insists there were”no signs of appendicitis”.
“My greatest hope is that this inquest will give us all the opportunity to learn from Luca’s death and stop this kind of thing happening again to another child or family,” Michelle said.
“He was courageous, cheeky and a wisdom beyond his years and we miss him everyday,” she added.
“As a mother there will never be another loss that comes close to losing my child. It’s like a nerve has been severed and remains open and raw.”
The inquest hopes to determine whether his death could have been prevented if he had been given a proper diagnosis earlier.
This article was first published on Kidspot and republished here with permission.
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