A Victorian toddler’s death could have been prevented if medical staff investigated her symptoms more thoroughly in the last three days of her life, a coroner has found.
Three-year-old Dio Kemp succumbed to bacterial septicaemia almost six years ago despite her mother taking her to one of Melbourne’s largest hospitals four times, and twice to see a family GP, in the days before her death. Bacterial septicaemia occurs when bacteria enters the bloodstream and causes blood poisoning.
Dio’s mother, Miranda Jowett, initially sought medical attention because she was concerned about her daughter’s fever and a bright rash on her cheek . The years-long inquest into Dio’s death previously heard that doctors believed she had a viral rather than a bacterial illness, and therefore couldn’t be treat