'McKay didn't get satisfactory care'

PUBLICAN David McKay received less than satisfactory medical care in Griffith Base Hospital, a coroner has found, but he was unable to say if a delay in a proper diagnosis and surgery caused the man's death.Mr McKay, 57, a husband, father of one son and manager of the Victoria Hotel, died in Griffith Base Hospital on October 17, 2008, just over two months after he was taken there by ambulance on August 12 after complaining to his wife that he could not walk and that his legs were numb and painful.Mr McKay was a diabetic who had ceased treatment for his condition, which included painful leg ulcers, some time before this episode.The true diagnosis of the problem that caused the crisis on August 12 was not given until August 14. At this point he was transferred to Wagga Base Hospital where surgery in the early hours of August 15 removed blood clots from both his legs.During the inquest held in Griffith this week, Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell heard the first medical practitioner to examine Mr McKay in hospital on August 12 was on his first day of work there. He had not undergone an induction because his plane was late and had not been shown around the hospital before his first shift.After examining Mr McKay, the doctor sought telephone advice from an on-call physician who was working on the basis of eight-day cycles in which he was on call 24 hours a day and had been at the hospital between 7am and 10pm on August 12 ? 15 hours ? before getting a call from the first-day emergency doctor about 2am on August 13.Mr Mitchell in his finding yesterday said a Dr Bernard Chung who had operated on Mr McKay in Wagga Base Hospital on August 15 "expressed concern about the delay in transferring the patient to Wagga"."He said that a consequence was that Mr McKay would probably lose both legs," Mr Mitchell said.Three days later both legs were amputated above the knees.Then followed a number of further amputations in the upper legs in the hope of arresting gangrene. They were unsuccessful and the infection spread to the point where doctors told Mr McKay that his survival could not be guaranteed even if there was further surgery.