Treva Ashton, 15, had felt unwell for several days before his mom took him to the doctor on June 24.
Initially, he only had a blocked nose. However, he eventually began to feel worse and started to vomit on June 23rd. He also showed signs of confusion, which alarmed his mother and the doctor.
The general practitioner immediately told his mother that ‘he’s [not meant to be here[‘ and directed them to the hospital as she suspected he needed to be seen right away, due to the severity of his symptoms.
Not only did he have a high fever of 40C, byt he also had low blood pressure and a low heart rate.
His family immediately brought Treva to Mt Druitt Hospital later that afternoon. After waiting one and a half hours to be seen, however, they were given two Panadol tablets and told to bring the teen home by a triage nurse, who believed the teen had ‘a stomach bug or the flu’.
Treva’s mother said the teen did not want to wait at the hospital any longer to see a doctor so they returned home.
Once they got home, however, the teen started vomiting. He told his parents he [didn’t feel well] and that his head was hurting. So his mother gave him a wet facewasher to help bring his temperature down.
But it was obvious to her that he had a severe infection.
That evening, Treva could barely eat and suffered excruciating headaches throughout the night and was given Panadol and Suafed for his pain.
The next morning, his symptoms worsened after he lost movement in one of his legs. Later that night at approximately 4 a.m., the family was woken by the teen’s screams. They immediately called for an ambulance.
He told his parents his head and stomach hurt. He was also vomiting.
When paramedics arrived, however, it was obvious that they were skeptical about the severity of his condition. They told his parents the teen ‘probably just had the flu or stomach bug’ and just needed to rest and drink more fluids.
The paramedics also said he would probably catch other bugs if they were to take him to the hospital.
However, Treva’s mother knew something wasn’t right and told the paramedics there was probably ‘something wrong with his brain’. However, the parametic quickly dismissed her concerns, saying that his symptoms were due to the flu.
However, Treva’s condition continued to worsen throughout the day. By the evening, his head was visibly swollen and he was vomiting blood. He was also experiencing severe body aches.
The teen told his parents his head felt like it was ‘going to explode.’
They called for another ambulance on the morning of June 27. This time, the medical team quickly rushed the 15-year-old teen to the hospital, where he quickly lost consciousness.
Doctors eventually put him into a medically induced coma and on a ventilator. Medical staff gave him IV antibiotics to help with the infection and ordered a CT scan for his head.
Results showed that he had fluid in his brain.
They immediately rushed him into surgery, removing a portion of his skull so that they could drain the fluid and allow the brain to swell. They then put the piece of skull back in place.
His parents were told there was ‘tons of pus from the infection’ in his head.
Treva remained in ICU for a couple of days, before being rushed back into surgery on July 1st. His surgeons had to help ease the pressure in his brain by drilling a hole in his eyebrow. They also cleaned his sinuses.
Despite the procedure, however, the pressure in his brain kept on going up. His surgeons ultimately rushed him back into the operating room for a second surgery – this time to remove the front part of his skull.
His medical team did everything they could but it was ultimately determined that Treva would not be able to recover as ‘part of [his] brain was dead.’
The surgeons delivered the tragic news to the family as the nurses stood crying. They also told his parents that Treva had suffered a stroke sometime between the first ambulance and the second one.
The surgeons also told them that the teen suffered several additional strokes between the first surgery and the second one.
His family made the hard decision to turn off his life support on July 7. They believe his death could have been prevented if doctors and paramedics took his situation more seriously.
However, they will not be pursuing any action until after the teen’s funeral.
