"Ignored and Dismissed"

Recently I woke up with joint pain and was feverish, my chest started feeling tighter and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. At first, I did not want to go to the clinic because I don’t like the smell of the hospital and everything.

I eventually went. I saw the nurse and they told me that I had a chest infection: they gave me Panadol for the fever and antibiotics. I did the entire course of antibiotics. I still did not feel better after this, but I thought I was cleared.

Days later I felt a sharp pain in my lower left abdomen. At first, I thought I was constipated / it was period pain. Then I got a really sharp pain in my lower back too. My first thought was hoping it was not an ovarian cyst (I've had one of these previously) but I was not sure.

This continued, I tried to ignore it – waiting for gas / my period to come. Eventually I went to the clinic. I was not able to stand up straight due to the pain and I explained this. I told them that I needed to go to the hospital. The nurse rang around - I heard them discussing my period. They then sent me away with pain killers. I took them there and then and was advised to take again in the evening.

By the time it got to the evening I was so weak and lying down in my bed that I could not get up to take them. I stayed like this for a couple of days. One night my child woke me up in the middle of the night and said they felt no good and could not breath. This scared me and I did not know what to do – I told them to take their puffer (they have asthma) and calmed them to go back to bed.

The next day (I went back to the clinic with my child, and I told the security guard that we both need to see the nurse. We both went in, and they examined my child – I don’t remember them giving my child any medication apart from the puffer. I continued sitting in pain, waiting to be seen. I went into the clinic, checked on my child and again explained I would like to be seen. They told me it was not about me it is about my child. 

My counsellor came by community at this time and offered a lift with her back to Broome (she was driving back that day anyway). I declined the lift as I was waiting for my child and hoped that the clinic would give me assistance to get medical attention, so she left. The clinic staff discussed on the phone about whether they should take my child to Fitzroy or Broome. I asked if they could fly us out or assist in getting us to Fitzroy hospital in any transport vehicle, they said that we must look for our own car. Eventually it became clear the clinic was not going to do any more, so I went back home.

I try to distract myself from the pain. I put my child in the bathroom with a hot shower to get steam into their lungs. That night my whole stomach was bloated, and I was not able to cough while my child was in the other room struggling to breath. I tried to sleep but I was in so much pain and was frightened so could not.

Later, I decided it did not matter what, we had to go to the hospital. My partner convinced their relative to let us borrow their car. We drove to Fitzroy Crossing.

Once at the hospital I explained that the information from the Noonkanbah clinic should be with them. They were confused and did not know what I was talking about. They eventually called me and said my child could not come. I was confused and worried by this. I was upset but apologised and went to go be seen because I was in so much pain and the doctors had told them to wait.

The doctors then came out after I had left and saw my child, but no one knew their information. I waited in a hospital room for them and eventually they came, and we were together. At this point I was scared for my child’s life and my own. They gave me morphine and an injection in my leg to stop the pain and my child was struggling to breath near me.

They then explained that they were going to fly me out to Broome due to their worries and asked me to find family to look after my child. Eventually they changed their mind and decided to fly both of us to Broome.

On the plane I had a high fever, and my blood pressure was really low, so they kept giving me adrenaline all the way to Broome. My child was crying and screaming in the back of the plane due to pain in their ears at the altitude. My chest got tighter and really sore and I was shaking - strapped up due to the adrenaline. I felt helpless to support my child and I was over thinking everything, feeling so bad.

When we got to Broome they discovered I had mucus in my lungs so bad that the antibiotics I got in Noonkanbah clinic will not have done anything. I found out me and my child both had pneumonia and it seems we could have died if we remained in Noonkanbah without support. I was also informed that my ovarian cyst had in fact come back. We both got put in the high dependency unit in Broome until we got better and were then discharged to the ward. They were thinking to fly my child to Perth due to their risk, but they managed to get better.