Bunbury father Sunny Alam says WA medical system can do better after tragic death of Aishwarya Aswath

The father of an unborn baby who died because of a hospital blunder has called for improvements to WA’s medical system in the wake of the tragic death of a seven-year-old girl at Perth Children’s Hospital. Bunbury couple Sunny Alam and Sarah Hassan lost their son, Zyeen, who was stillborn after his mother was given a massive overdose of morphine. Mr Alam said he had been saddened to learn of the death of Aishwarya Aswath on Saturday night and wanted to extend his condolences to her family. “I feel how hard it is to stand in front of the graveyard (for) anyone (who has) lost their child,” he said. Aishwarya and her parents were made to wait two hours in Perth Children’s Hospital before receiving treatment, which came too late to save her. They still do not know the cause of her death, which is subject to a Health Department “root cause analysis” that is expected to take between four and six weeks. Health Minister Roger Cook has admitted the child’s deteriorating condition had been “overlooked for one reason or another” and vowed he would leave no stone unturned in the search for answers. Mr Alam said he believed WA already had the best hospitals, but more needed to be done to make sure they could be relied on. “What we can do is to ensure a better and flexible medical system on which we can rely,” he said. Ms Hassan was injected with 100mg of morphine — 10 times the amount prescribed — at St John of God Bunbury Hospital in December. The overdosing error and lack of adequate follow-up checks almost killed Ms Hassan, who spent four days fighting for her life. Mr Alam said if his baby son had survived he would now be five months old. “That incident killed three lives, not one,” he said.