IAN PHILLIPS: I feel like I’m dying. I feel like my head’s going to blow up. It’s swelling so much.
It’s going up, up my head. I could feel it up to the top of my head.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM, REPORTER: Bleeding and swollen. Ian Phillips’ condition was deteriorating after being admitted to University Hospital Geelong hours earlier
It would be 24 hours before Ian would be treated for an infection that cost him his eye and would almost cost him his life.
IAN PHILLIPS: I know that I can feel that I don’t have an eye there after what I’ve just been through.
It was very, very, very confronting.
JADE PHILLIPS: I thought he might lose his eye, but I didn’t know there was a chance he was going to die.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Four years ago, Ian and his wife Jade were celebrating Easter at home in Victoria’s southwest when their three-year-old son accidentally struck Ian with a wooden toy.
IAN PHILLIPS: He’s just decided to grab it and swing it around at me and just clock me in the eyebrow and just opened my skin right up instantly and lots of blood.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Ian went to his local GP who glued the cut together, he took these photos as his condition worsened.
IAN PHILLIPS: It was fully swollen, and my eyes closed over, it was that swollen that it was closed. So, then I thought, this is pretty serious so I said, I better go to hospital.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: He went to University Hospital Geelong and was admitted on the 6th of April 2021.
IAN PHILLIPS: Apparently this is not an emergency.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Jade had arrived when Ian recorded this video. She told staff she believed his eye was infected. Instead, an ED intern, an ED consultant and ophthalmology registrar said it was a traumatic eye injury.
JADE PHILLIPS: They just keep telling us it’s not infected, it’s not infection, it doesn’t present as an infection.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: That night, she left the hospital to look after their children, Ian updated Jade via text.
“Not good” Ian said.
Jade asked, “Still the same or worse?”
“Yep” he replied “They don’t listen”
Jade asks “Why”.
He responded, ‘Don’t know”. His last text was, “Swelling won’t stop”.
IAN PHILLIPS: I remember a doctor come in with an icy pole stick and trying to sort of pry open the swelling and to try and have a look at my eye. And I’m thinking, that’s so tight. There’s so much pressure there. There’s no way you’re going to be able to see it.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Then, 29 hours after Ian first arrived at University Hospital Geelong a consultant ophthalmologist raised the possibility Ian could be infected with necrotising fasciitis.
DR RAHUL CHAKRABARTI, OPHTHALMOLOGIST: Necrotizing fasciitis is one of the worst, most aggressive infections that affects skin and deeper tissues.
Some studies have a mortality rate of approximately 30 per cent.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Ophthalmologist Dr Rahul Chakrabarti is not associated with Ian’s case, but he has treated two patients with necrotising fasciitis.
He says the infection is rare.
RAHUL CHAKRABARTI: Obviously around the eye socket, we are worried about the propensity of the infection to extend to the brain. So, this is why particularly around the face and head and neck, necrotizing fasciitis can be very catastrophic.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Ian was rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for emergency surgery to treat necrotising fasciitis and sepsis. Afterwards, he was placed in an induced coma.
JADE PHILLIPS: I didn’t think he was going to make it. That’s what they kept preparing me for, just kept constantly reminding me how sick he was.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: After two weeks, Ian woke up from his coma.
IAN PHILLIPS: I said, “I’m pretty sure my eye’s gone.” And he said, “Yeah, that’s right, you lost an eye”.
JADE PHILLIPS: I already knew. I knew instantly that something had gone wrong in Geelong Hospital, that they did not act quick enough.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Barwon Health runs University Hospital Geelong. 7.30 has seen an internal review into Ian’s care provided to the family.
It revealed staff provided Ian with a range of painkillers including endone, morphine, tramadol and fentanyl but didn’t give him antibiotics until 24 hours after he first presented in emergency.
SHARI LIBY, LAWYER: And then when they did, they really weren’t looking at the right kind of infection and therefore they didn’t use the right antibiotics.
Even then, our experts say that had even 24 hours after he presented at the hospital, if they’d given him appropriate antibiotics that all of this, this would never have happened.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Lawyer Shari Liby is from Slater & Gordon. She’s representing Ian and Jade who are suing Barwon Health for damages.
SHARI LIBY: This has been absolutely devastating to Ian and his family. He was injured playing with his son, and for that to go from that, to essentially losing about a quarter of his face, losing his eye and being in a coma.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Barwon Health’s own review of the incident identified three occasions during the first 17 hours Ian was in hospital where a diagnosis of infection could have been considered but wasn’t.
The review found suspicion for infection was low because the original injury was not contaminated and because necrotizing fasciitis is a very rare condition.
SHARI LIBY: That is how this terrible infection was allowed to progress and get to the point where the only way to save Ian’s life was to remove so much of the tissue from his face and to remove his eye.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: 7.30 requested an interview with Barwon Health to discuss Ian’s treatment at University Hospital Geelong. It declined.
A spokesperson told us, “Barwon Health is unable to provide comments as this matter is before the courts.”
Ian owns a mechanic workshop with his brother. His peripheral vision is now severely reduced.
IAN PHILLIPS: It’s very fiddly work that I do. Just grinding things in the right angle and I just remember being frustrated.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: And it’s now too unsafe for him to enjoy his favourite hobby.
IAN PHILLIPS: Not being able to ride motocross is probably the biggest kick in the guts.
Just in my face, the numbness is always there, so it’s a constant reminder.
JADE PHILLIPS: The looks are always there, everywhere we go. Even to the shops, you notice, because it’s so obvious.
ALYSIA THOMAS-SAM: Ian’s experience was life changing and for his wife Jade going to the doctor will never be the same.
JADE PHILLIPS: I don’t trust any doctor anymore. Even now, the GP, when the kids have a cold, I’m always second guessing what they’re thinking. How do you know it’s just a cold? What if it’s something more?