Father's vaccine plea after three-year-old boy's flu death
The parents of a Sydney boy who died from the flu have pleaded with other parents to vaccinate their children.
Aidan Mara, three, died in 2014 after being admitted to Sutherland Hospital with the flu.
His death is now the focus of a coronial inquest.
Outside court, the three-year-old’s father, Lucas, said he and his wife, Gillian, had no idea their little boy had the flu until he died.
“If I think about how Aidan was impacted, he collapsed really, really quickly once he got the flu,” Mr Mara said.
Aidan was effervescent, full of life and cheek.
In the space of just three days he was gone.
Aidan’s immunisations were up to date but he did not have the non-compulsory flu-shot.
“Regrettably if we had have known we probably would have got the vaccine for Aidan,” Mr Mara said.
“As a parent that’s a bit hard to take.”
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The little boy was taken to hospital after developing a cough.
His breathing eventually slowed before he went into cardiac arrest.
But rather than take manual observations, the two nurses charged with his care were convinced the machine monitoring Aidan was faulty despite physical signs Aidan’s condition was worsening.
On Friday, the coroner recommended training for all nurses to stop a culture she says relies on monitoring equipment, rather than basic nursing skills.
“To actually make change we need to be aware of things that have gone wrong and put our hands up when things do go wrong,” Mr Mara said.
