{"id":534021,"date":"2026-07-19T19:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T19:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/534021\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T19:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T19:04:08","slug":"health-nz-admits-failings-after-toddlers-obstructed-bowel-missed-at-whangarei-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/534021\/","title":{"rendered":"Health NZ admits failings after toddler\u2019s obstructed bowel missed at Whang\u0101rei Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brar said his condition steadily deteriorated over the next day. He became increasingly lethargic, was unable to keep fluids down, stopped passing bowel motions and developed a swollen, firm abdomen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe couldn\u2019t even sit because his tummy was getting bigger and bigger. He was just lying down, wasn\u2019t moving much.\u201d <\/p>\n

Concerned that something more serious was wrong, Brar contacted a cousin in Sydney who is a nurse. After hearing about the symptoms and viewing photographs and video, he suggested the boy might have an abdominal obstruction or twisted bowel. He urged the family to ask doctors for more imaging. <\/p>\n

Brar said she repeatedly raised those concerns with hospital staff and requested further investigations, including an ultrasound. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was literally crying and begging. I said, \u2018Can you just do something? My son is not okay.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018It\u2019s been over 35 hours. You\u2019re only giving him Pamol. You\u2019re saying it\u2019s a gastro or stomach bug. His tummy, his belly button is coming out. I\u2019m telling you this is something more than that.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

By Tuesday morning, nearly two days after his admission, she said she went out of her comfort zone \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m not a complainer by nature\u201d \u2013 and demanded action from clinicians.<\/p>\n

Within hours, arrangements were made to transfer the boy by helicopter to Starship. <\/p>\n

Clinicians there immediately recognised the seriousness of the situation, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said they are very concerned about his situation because he\u2019s not looking okay and his blood tests and his physical health are saying two different things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her son will eventually adapt to having a shorter bowel but could face future complications.<\/p>\n

While grateful that her son survived, she said the experience left lasting emotional scars on the family. <\/p>\n

And the delay in meeting with clinicians had prevented her from putting the experience behind her. <\/p>\n

She lodged a complaint with Whang\u0101rei Hospital on May 15. <\/p>\n

\"HealthHealth New Zealand Te Tai Tokerau says it sincerely regrets a family’s experience at Whang\u0101rei Hospital. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

In a June 22 letter to Brar, Health New Zealand Te Tai Tokerau <\/a>apologised for communication failures and said a review had identified shortcomings in the escalation of his care.<\/p>\n

The review, undertaken by Whang\u0101rei Hospital\u2019s paediatric and surgical teams with input from Starship specialists, found concerns about the toddler\u2019s condition \u201cwere not escalated early enough to senior decision-makers\u201d and that consultant-to-consultant discussions between Whang\u0101rei and Starship \u201cdid not occur at the appropriate stage\u201d.<\/p>\n

Health New Zealand said the case had prompted changes to escalation procedures, communication processes, interhospital referral pathways and staff education. <\/p>\n

But Brar said apologies were not enough and the letter fell short of the accountability she was seeking. She was not initially offered the chance to meet the clinicians involved. Now that she has been offered a meeting, she has been told it cannot occur until the end of the month because a staff member involved is on leave. <\/p>\n

Brar said meeting face-to-face was the only way clinicians could be truly held accountable for decisions she believed contributed to delays in the diagnosis and surgery her son needed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need their apology; it\u2019s far beyond that. I want to understand how those decisions were made and what has changed since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to ask them, whatever made them say at the time that this is not life-threatening, it\u2019s not an emergency. What\u2019s their thoughts on that now?\u201d<\/p>\n

She said clinicians should reflect on the decisions made during her son\u2019s care and on lessons that could prevent other children and families from experiencing the same ordeal.<\/p>\n

She would wait to see how that meeting unfolded before deciding whether to take her complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner.<\/p>\n

Despite the pending meeting with clinicians, Brar said she still wanted to tell her story publicly. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want any other mum or a child to go through that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Health New Zealand Te Tai Tokerau group director of operations Alex Pimm said Brar had been provided with a detailed written response addressing her concerns, and the organisation \u201cwould welcome the opportunity to meet with her to discuss any remaining questions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sarah Curtis<\/a> is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years\u2019 experience in journalism, most of which she spent reporting on the courts in Gisborne and the East Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brar said his condition steadily deteriorated over the next day. He became increasingly lethargic, was unable to keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16489,74,1975,36334,3526,15245,1239,15974,9827,23944,134,2241,14771,3234,6178,11692,111,43,139,69,263456,4056,11547,11426,312,1238,42774,5147,6100,6290,13835,150065,10510,1869],"class_list":["post-534021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-admits","tag-after","tag-at","tag-bowel","tag-clinicians","tag-concerned","tag-condition","tag-emergency","tag-explain","tag-failings","tag-health","tag-hospital","tag-missed","tag-months","tag-mother","tag-nearly","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-obstructed","tag-person","tag-recognised","tag-rushed","tag-says","tag-serious","tag-sooner","tag-starship","tag-still","tag-surgery","tag-toddler","tag-toddlers","tag-waiting","tag-whangrei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}