Boy’s asthma attack mistaken for panic attack: coroner
The eight-year-old's death in a Tasmanian hospital was due to 'substandard care'
An eight-year-old boy living under a government care order died from chronic asthma in a Tasmanian hospital when staff wrongly believed he was having a panic attack.
A coroner has ruled attempts to resuscitate the boy in his final moments were of a poor standard and his entirely avoidable death was due to substandard treatment.
The boy, known only as HB, was visiting his grandparents in the coastal town of Ulverstone when he was rushed to the North West Regional Hospital on 28 June 2019 “struggling to breathe”.
He died five days later in hospital after collapsing in a toilet.
