Family 'disgusted' by deceased son's hospital treatment | 9 News Australia

Brighton Grammar student James Tsindos was a talented pianist, but since he died four years ago the piano in his family home has not been touched.

It's a reminder to the 17-year-old's parents that their son should still be with them.

"I'm waiting for him to come home," his mother, Venetia Tsindos, said.

The schoolboy died in May 2001 after being taken by ambulance to the emergency department of Holmesglen Private Hospital suffering from anaphylaxis after inadvertently eating a sauce made of cashews, which he was allergic to.

His family are speaking out for the first time as part of a special report by 60 Minutes and The Age, along with two other families who have lost loved ones at privately run emergency departments overseen by embattled company Healthscope.

His family are speaking out for the first time as part of a special report by 60 Minutes and The Age, along with two other families who have lost loved ones at privately run emergency departments overseen by embattled company Healthscope.

But the wheeze was not recorded in the handover from the paramedics to the triage nurse, despite James also using his asthma puffer consistently as he struggled to breathe.

"James at that point of triage could have and should have gotten immediate adrenalin, that's the drug that is the baseline standard of care for anybody having an anaphylactic reaction," says Slater and Gordon lawyer Sharri Liby, who represented the Tsindos family at the inquest.

He was incorrectly triaged as a category three patient, to be seen by a doctor within 30 minutes, and put in an isolation room while awaiting a COVID-19 test, instead of a resuscitation room.

James then deteriorated and went into cardiac arrest, suffering a catastrophic brain injury.

Harry Tsindos says that ever since, they have been trying to find out what happened to their son.

"I'm burying my son, and I don't really know what happened," he said.

"I've got a kid that walks into an ambulance, says to me, 'Dad, I'm fine', and I'm burying him, and I don't know why.

"I mean, when you say to me what went wrong - what went wrong is that we took him to Homesglen hospital. That's what went wrong."

James' sisters, Kristina and Georgia, say their brother's death was preventable and the quiet piano and empty hallway are daily reminders of the anger they have towards Healthscope at what they've lost.

"I personally don't think they should have an emergency department. They should scratch their whole emergency department," Kristina says.

Georgia says her brother's death just "wasn't meant to happen".

"I'm angry at the hospital. I'm angry at the fact that he didn't get to live his life and I'm angry that he was only 17 when this happened to him. It was so preventable," she said.

The Tsindos family say knowing a simple shot of adrenaline could have saved their boy has torn them apart.

"It's adrenaline … the simplicity and the devastation of not doing that. It's gut-wrenching," Harry said.

"What they should have said is, 'We are sorry. This shouldn't have happened James should still be alive. We screwed up, bad. And we're going to work out why and we're going to make sure it doesn't happen again'," he said.

Wife Venetia adds: "It's not only frustrating, but it's tragic and traumatic to try and come to terms with the fact that first aid wasn't actioned in an emergency hospital."

The Tsindos family are not the only ones outraged by the failings of Healthscope.

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