Little Boy's Battle for Compensation

On the 3rd October 2015, our little boy Taeryn suffered from a major stroke at the age of 18 months leaving him permanently disabled. His stroke was caused by a treatable bacterial heart infection which went un-diagnosed for months.

Taeryn was sick for about 5 months leading up to his stroke. Yes he was taken to a GP and A&E multiple times, week after week after week. Not once was he referred to a specialist. Not once did he undergo any diagnostic testing. Not once did a doctor try to identify the cause of Taeryn's ongoing illness. By the time any medical professionals investigated Taeryn's illness it was too late, Taeryn had suffered multiple strokes and almost lost his life.

We are currently appealing ACC's decision to deny Taeryn compensation for his stroke injury. We believe his case should fall under the 'Treatment Injury criteria for 'not' receiving adequate treatment when he was sick'. Had Taeryn been given adequate treatment for his illness, we believe he would not have suffered a stroke leaving him permanently disabled. The lawyers supporting our case are from John Millar Law who specialise in ACC treatment injury claims. We are approximately 2 years into our court battle with ACC.

We understand that it is unrealistic to expect a GP to diagnose a heart infection, but it is their responsibility to identify when 'something isn't quite right?' How long must a child be sick before a GP will refer them to a specialist? What about diagnostic testing, why were we turned down twice when we wanted the doctor to run blood tests? Why does our health care system enable children with life threatening illnesses to slip under the radar like this? Taeryn was presented time and time again with the same reoccurring symptoms over a prolonged period of time and we believe he never received the treatment he needed because we feel the doctors would not take our concerns seriously.

ACC have told us that if another child presented to their GP with the same symptoms our son had, then they would accept that the level of treatment that Taeryn received is acceptable. In other words it could happen again, and another child and family could suffer.

Your contribution towards a 'Little Boy's Battle for Compensation' will help us in our case against ACC by providing funding to get an independant doctors review of his treatment. If we are successful in our case against ACC this could be the beginning of positive changes to our health care system that will see no child suffer again like our little boy did.