Why ‘healthy mum’ died from heart check procedure

Peta Hickey died in hospital eight days after she was injected with a contrast dye for a CT coronary angiogram scan in May 2019.

She died from the anaphylactic reaction and multiple organ failure.

The healthy 43-year-old mum, who worked as an executive, was referred for the scan as part of her workplace’s heart check program.

A coronial inquest probed whether her death, following the procedure at Future Medical Imaging Group’s clinic at Moonee Ponds, was preventable.

Ms Hickey had no prior history of heart problems but soon after she was injected with the dye at the clinic she became nauseous and was getting short of breath, the inquest heard.

She started to vomit and lost consciousness.

The CT scan was part of a voluntary heart check program her job introduced for managers after an employee had a non-fatal cardiac arrest while working overseas.

During the inquest it was revealed Ms Hickey never met the referring physician, who also denied ever signing a document for her to get the procedure.

The radiologist who administered the dye, Radiologist Gavin Tseng, said he wasn’t able to instruct other staff to give her the adrenaline shot.

Mr Tseng said this was because he was managing the woman’s airways at the time and could not do both.

“Given I was the only medically trained person on site I was unfortunately limited in my ability to administer Advanced Life Support to Ms Hickey,” the radiologist said in a statement.

“This event has shaken everyone involved in her care and I would like to express my condolences to her friends and family.”

The inquest heard the signature of the doctor doing the assessment of the scans, Dr Doumit Saad, was on a referral for Ms Hickey to undergo the procedure but he claimed he did not put it on the document.

“I did not personally sign the request form, nor did I have any knowledge of it being ordered and my name being used to order it,” Dr Saad said in his witness statement.

It was “madness” to go ahead with the scan without consultation, the doctor told the court.

However this was disputed by lawyers for the company contracted to help manage the heart scan program who claimed the doctor’s evidence could not be accepted or relied upon.

But the doctor disputed this and said people were “fabricating” their evidence for “self-preservation”.

The coroner will hand down his findings at a later date.