Without Due Care - An Australian Story

Our Australian story is the story of Don Mackay. Don's story is told by his surviving wife; Therese Mackay who was witness to the brutal and agonizing treatment Don was subjected to by the Health Care System in NSW. His story is outlined in a book entitled: Without Due Care- An Australian Hospital Tragedy, written by his wife Therese. This book is a shocking account of what can happen to anyone subjecting themselves to the Health Care System. This story is an account of a loving family's plight and fight for justice.
27.4.12 Without Due Care - Therese Mackay (1hr)

This book is the story of Donald Mackay a quadriplegic man’s shocking medical abuse & death at the hands of a diseased and unaccountable Australia Healthcare System.

My husband, Don Mackay, died because of what was done to him in a major Sydney teaching hospital: a wrong and totally unnecessary operation; a lung mistakenly suctioned for 22 hours at 10 times the correct rate; a severe MRSA – golden staph infection inside his lungs; deadly pneumonia and sepsis which developed during the 36 days he spent there.

The hundreds of errors and the numerous instances of lack of caring listed in this book are only those I witnessed or discovered during the 12 hours I was with Don each day for just over five nightmarish weeks. Common sense tells me many more must have occurred while I wasn’t there. Certainly during the nights Don had tests, was being turned, had body care, had X-rays taken and experienced medical crises. Other events unknown to me also occurred. For my own sanity I believe it is best that I am not able to find out what else happened to him. What I do know will haunt our family for a long time. For me, it will be for the rest of my life.

Knowing the grievous impact on Don of the errors they had made, senior doctors at a Sydney Hospital effectively imposed a blanket ban on any information getting to us about every aspect of Don’s condition, its causes and treatment, alternative options, possible adverse effects of treatment and the probable and actual outcome. Though this may seem an extremely unlikely way for staff of a major hospital to behave, particularly with patients’ rights so well defined these days, it is true. Such morally unacceptable conduct needs to be fully exposed to the public and to the authorities, so as to end – I hope forever – what appears to have become standard practice within this particular, once highly renowned, Australian hospital. Read more at: Without Due Care