Doomadgee

Three Indigenous women have died from Rheumatic Heart Disease in regional Queensland after the hospital sent them home instead of giving them urgent care.

The dismissal of Indigenous women and teens in need of urgent medical care continues to take place across the country. We all need to be aware of the stark inequity (if not systemic racism) in our healthcare system. Both Health Minister Greg Hunt and Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt declined to speak with Four Corners on the national issue. Every health care worker in Australia (if not every Australian) should see tonight’s#4cornerson rheumatic heart disease. More than a week later, she was flown to the state capital for urgent surgery. A fatal disease, easily treated, virtually eradicated in the rest of Australia, is still killing young women in indigenous communities. Booth was given paracetamol and antibiotics and sent home every time, with no note of her diagnosis in the hospital’s records. Does that child deserve any less?” said Pat Turner from the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. Neither of those things happened when she tried to be admitted to Doomadgee hospital on 12 separate occasions with worsening symptoms. Mother of three Adele Sandy had been living with RHD since she was about six years old. “I’m frightened to go to the hospital, I don’t go there because they don’t attend to you or say hello to you, or ask you want you want or what can they do for us. When her symptoms started getting bad, her sister begged the hospital to send her to a larger facility on multiple occasions.