Hi, my name is Nadine and this is our story...

On October 26th 2017, our 10 week old son, Dexter, passed away from a rare bacteria which caused meningitis & sepsis. 

We presented at Kempsey District Hospital at approx 8:50am Wednesday the 25th of October, our son was grey, had rapid breathing, a high temp and super low blood sugar among other really low or high stats.  We were told we would be air lifted by 12 midday to a better equipped hospital as they suspected he had a bowel blockage. As time went on Dexter's condition deteriorated & they weren't quite sure what was wrong with him, was told possibly an infection of some sort. At approx 1:20pm while we were still waiting to be transported Dexter stopped breathing. He was put in an induced coma on life support and we were finally transported by helicopter to Randwick Children's hospital at 5:45pm that evening arriving at 7:15pm.

Not long after arriving, we were told he had a bacterial infection throughout his little body & brain. He fought long and hard but our precious boy just couldnt hold on any longer, he passed away in his Daddys arm's at 4am.

We believe 100% that if a paediatrician was available at our hospital, the outcome would've been alot different, we believe he would have been transported ALOT sooner & would still be here with his family.

There is no paediatrician or children's ward in Kempsey Hospital despite our increasing population of now over 15,000. This is not acceptable!!! Why wasn't there a children's ward built when they did the huge upgrades to our hospital? Our closest paediatrician available is in Port Macquarie approximately 45kms away.

Our children deserve a paediatrician to make a more thorough diagnosis and to make the important decision to transport or not.

We're not sure how to make this happen but are willing to do anything we can to make it possible.

Please share this around and sign it to help us achieve this for our community & most importantly our precious children.