In national news, an inquest is being launched into the death of Sommer Warren, an 18-year-old who died during labour at a regional Victorian hospital.
Ms Warren died when she suffered severe hypertension from a seizure, after being induced at Shepparton’s Goulburn Valley Health in 2014.
The inquest was told how the woman had gone to the hospital six times in two weeks due to health concerns, and that the hospital failed to induce Ms Warren in the days before her death, despite a local doctor urging immediate action.
Two obstetricians, Professor Jonathan Hyett and Dr Bernadette White, did not consider that Sommer met the formal diagnostic features for pre-eclampsia or eclampsia, and that her obstetric management was reasonable.
Ms Scammell, Warren’s mother, told the inquest how she watched on helplessly as Ms Warren struggled and deteriorated throughout the day, and felt like she had been abandoned by inconsistent hospital staff.