James’s father Harry Tsindos said 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.
James Tsindos.
“I mean, when you say to me what went wrong – what went wrong is that we took him to Holmesglen [Private] Hospital. That’s what went wrong.”
James’ sisters, Kristina and Georgia, said 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 said.
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Georgia said 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.”
The Tsindos family said knowing a simple shot of adrenaline could have saved their boy had 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.”
Wife Venetia added: “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.”
Elouise and Danny Massa holding a pair of their son Joe’s shoes in his favourite part of the family’s garden in Balgowlah.Credit: Kate Geraghty and supplied
The Tsindos family are not the only ones outraged by the failings of Healthscope.
In 2017, pregnant mum Annie Moylan died after her deadly sepsis was misdiagnosed as gastro at Holmesglen, and last September two-year-old Joe Massa died at the Northern Beaches Hospital in Sydney after waiting almost three hours for help.
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Joe’s father, Danny Massa, believes Healthscope should not be in charge of emergency care in Australia.
“Not by any stretch of the imagination, we aren’t an isolated case through the care of Healthscope in emergency departments. It makes my blood boil,” Massa said.
Northern Beaches provides both public and private beds in a unique partnership with the New South Wales government. The company announced last week it is in talks to hand the hospital back to the state government amid numerous inquiries into Joe’s death.
Healthscope’s financial future is also uncertain, currently struggling to pay its rent under the weight of a $1.6 billion debt. It’s owned by Canadian asset manager Brookfield.
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“They are failing and what does it come down to? Cost,” Joe’s mother Elouise Massa said.
“Enough is enough.”
Healthscope chief executive Tino La Spina said in a statement that its eight emergency departments cared for nearly 150,000 patients every year with most receiving timely and compassionate care from hospitals which met or exceeded the national average for quality and safety performance.
“Regrettably, we acknowledge that there can be times, though they are rare, when our patient care and outcomes do not meet the standards we set for ourselves or the standard expected by the public,” the statement said.
La Spina said Healthscope was co-operating fully with the inquest into the death of James Tsindos and would implement any of the coroner’s recommendations.
La Spina also acknowledged there were “unacceptable failings” in the treatment of toddler Joe Massa, and they were “unreservedly sorry” that he “did not receive the care he deserved”.
He said Healthscope had also implemented all coronial recommendations regarding sepsis awareness to staff following the death of Annie Moylan, noting a finding that no nursing or medical management could have prevented her death.
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