Legal action looms for GP cleared after ‘notorious presentation’

The young patient's family will sue the doctor over the appendicitis misdiagnosis death, say lawyers
Australian Associated Press

A coroner has refused to criticise a GP who diagnosed his 13-year-old patient with gastroenteritis, only for the child to die from retrocaecal appendicitis five days later.

The inquest was told by expert witnesses they could have easily made the same misdiagnosis of a ‘notorious presentation’.

It followed an investigation by the Medical Council of NSW which decided to take no further action. However, lawyers say the boy’s mother is now preparing to sue the GP regardless.

She brought her son Luca Raso to see the NSW GP after two days of vomiting back in February 2017.