Amrita Varshini Lanka inquest: Melbourne mum reveals hospital ‘ignored’ harrowing pleas for help hours before her little girl died

A mother says her desperate pleas for hospital staff to help her sick daughter were ignored before the eight-year-old girl died about 21 hours after being admitted to the emergency room.

Amrita Varshini Lanka passed away on April 30, 2022, at Monash Children’s Hospital from lymphocytic myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.

The girl presented herself to the emergency room with abdominal pain and fever.

Initial investigations ruled out appendicitis because the nurses assumed Amrita had gastroenteritis.

However, the child developed breathing problems and suffered cardiac arrest a few hours later. Resuscitation was no longer possible.

During an inquest on Monday, Satya Tarapureddi accused hospital staff of ignoring her pleas for help after her daughter started complaining of stomach pains.

When Amrita and her mother were taken to the hospital ward around 3pm, a nurse showed her the emergency button that she could press to get help.

Ms Tarapureddi said she pressed the button about seven times during the 21-hour ordeal but no one came.

“Nobody responded. They ignored me. I don’t know why,” she told Melbourne Coroners Court.

She asked a hospital cleaner for help and he confirmed that the button worked.

Mrs. Tarapureddi said she went to the nurse’s desk to report that her daughter was in pain and there was no response after she pressed the button.

“The nurse told me to wait because they were having a conversation,” she said.

About 20 minutes later a nurse arrived with Nurofen and then left again.

A few hours later, Amrita started having trouble breathing. A doctor told her that this was because she had not eaten anything.

In the early morning of April 30, Ms Tarapureddi expressed her concern after seeing Amrita’s heart rate rise to over 200 beats per minute.

But she said Dr. Patrick Tan, who was in the emergency department that evening, told her the machine was not working.

Eight-year-old Amrita died of heart infection after going to the emergency room with stomach pain and fever

Amrita continued to complain of pain and an electrocardiogram was performed to test the electrical signals in her heart.

Amrita’s mother said that Dr. Tan had given her the report and that everything was “fine” despite noting that there were some abnormal results.

Hours later, Amrita’s heart stopped for about two minutes before she was revived.

She died after suffering a second cardiac arrest while waiting to be transferred to the Royal Children’s Hospital.

“It’s not easy to lose a daughter. It’s very hard. They just ignored her,” Ms Tarapureddi said.

“They lost my daughter. They killed my daughter.”

Dr Tan released a statement on Monday admitting that mistakes had been made in Amrita’s care.

That night, 18 patients were handed over to him, compared to the normal 10. He said he did not realise how serious the girl’s condition was, as he had already treated a category 1 patient.

Amrita Varshini Lanka died of lymphocytic myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle

When reviewing Amrita’s abnormal heart report, Dr Tan said he found it “reassuring and there was no significant abnormality”.

“At the time, in the context of a significant clinical burden, I didn’t recognize the interpretation,” he said.

“It would have changed when they realized there was dissociation.”

Lawyers for Monash Health said staff failed to appreciate the seriousness of the condition and that Amrita’s blood pressure should have been monitored more often.

The investigation will examine whether the care provided was reasonable, whether the family’s concerns were addressed appropriately, and whether there were limited resources or competing demands that contributed to her death.

Outside the courtroom, Amrita’s parents hoped the investigation would provide answers to the “many questions we have about what went wrong … and how it could have been prevented.”