Parents in hunger strike at Perth hospital after daughter died waiting to see doctor

Little Aishwarya Aswath waited two hours in the emergency department on Easter Saturday after she arrived at the hospital with a fever.

She was triaged into the second-least urgent category, The West Australian reports.

Her parents, Aswath Chavittupara and Prasitha Sasidharan, pleaded with staff for her to be assessed as her eyes became cloudy, and her hands turned cold and became rigid.

Aishwarya was declared “code blue” when she was eventually assessed by a doctor, Suresh Rajan, a spokesperson for the family told the ABC.

She died soon after being seen by a doctor.

Mr Rajan has said the family had tried to get attention for Aishwarya but had been ignored by hospital staff.

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He said during the two-hour period they were in the hospital, the parents were “begging and pleading” on at least “four or five occasions” with the nurses to tend to Aishwarya.

“Mum and dad kept coming, carrying her over to the nurses area asking for someone desperately to see her, but it was not to be.”

The parents began their strike outside the Perth Children’s Hospital early on Saturday morning holding signs reading, “Fight for justice for Aishwarya”.

Mr Raja said the “promises that have been made to the family about seeking ‘justice’ for his little girl have amounted to nothing.

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“Tomorrow it will be four weeks since her passing. There is still no report from the much vaunted Internal Inquiry. There are no answers to the myriad questions that have arisen about Aishwarya’s death.”

“And importantly, the details are slowly disappearing from the front of our minds.

“This is a father, desperate to hear answers about the passing of his daughter. Let us hope that the authorities will take notice and give them those answers now.”

The Western Australian premier committed to two separate inquiries into Aishwarya’s death earlier this month.

“It’s a very, very sad thing for the family. I think everyone feels for them but we can’t possibly understand their grief,” Mark McGowan said.

“It’s beyond imagining.

“There’ll be two inquiries into the matter to get to the bottom of what has occurred. I think we owe the family and Aishwarya that as a State.”

Mr McGowan hasn’t commented on whether understaffing could arise as an issue in the inquiry.

The night of Aishwarya’s death, four doctors were out sick.