Source : Perth Now news
A former gas fitter who admitted to killing one newborn and leaving another with lifelong brain injuries after bungling a gas installation at a Sydney hospital has been told of the permanent scars that his young victims’ loved ones have been forced to carry.
Christopher Laurie Turner hung his head and rarely looked up as he sat in the dock in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Friday as he faced the prospect of up to 25 years in jail.
Turner is facing sentencing proceedings over his role in the death of baby John Ghanem and the injuries suffered by Amelia Khan that have left her requiring around-the-clock care.
Turner previously pleaded not guilty and indicated that he would fight the charges at trial, but in an about-face he in October pleaded guilty to one count each of manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm by omission.
He admitted to bungling the fitting of oxygen connections at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in July 2015 that led to both newborns being administered with nitrous oxide – known as laughing gas.
Baby John Ghanem died in July 2016 after he was ventilated with nitrous oxide from a neonatal gas system labelled “oxygen” in operating theatre eight.
He was alive for less than an hour.
One month prior, newborn Amelia Khan suffered serious brain damage after she was administered nitrous oxide during an emergency resuscitation.
In 2020, Turner pleaded guilty to failing in his duty under the Work Health and Safety Act and was fined $100,000.
Following a 2021 coronial inquest, he was referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions and was arrested and charged with criminal offences in August 2022.
He on Friday appeared in court for sentencing proceedings during which Crown prosecutor Rossi Kotsis argued that no other sentence other than full-time imprisonment was appropriate given the seriousness of his crimes.
Amelia and John’s parents were not in the Downing Centre on Friday morning but their moving victim impact statements were read to the court.
Amelia’s father Danial said his daughter’s injuries had changed the course of his life and that of his family.
The court was told that Amelia had suffered severe and permanent brain damage and had endured ongoing medical complications including seizures.
“The day Amelia was born should have been the happiest moment of our lives but has become a lifelong tragedy,” Mr Khan said in his victim impact statement to the court.
Mr Khan told the court that his daughter required constant care, which has taken a profound emotional toll on his family.
He said every parent wished to see their child grow into an independent person, but Amelia depended on others for “survival and dignity”.
“She lives every day with injuries she did nothing to deserve,” Mr Khan said.
Baby John’s mother Sonya told the court of how she had expected to come home with her son but returned from the hospital empty-handed.
“Nothing will change for me, nothing is going to bring my boy back,” she said, adding that she often wished for a miracle to return her son.
She said John would be 10 years old now and she often wondered what he would look like as she detailed the deep toll his death had wrought on her and her family.
The mix-up was a result of nitrous oxide gas pipeline lines in the roof being mislabelled as oxygen in 1996.
Turner was subcontracted to carry out overnight work to connect neonatal oxygen lines to the birthing suites.
During the work, the nitrous oxide pipe was connected to the oxygen outlet in the operating theatre.
The court was told that under the Australian Standard, Turner was required to carry out tests for cross connection and gas concentration in operating theatre eight.
However, Mr Kotsis told the court that Turner did not do any checks, which he said were rudimentary and could have been done in minutes.
This is despite filling out forms to certify that he had done so.
He argued that Turner was “grossly negligent” and the results of his actions were “foreseeable”
“The test could have been done with very little effort and very little time,” Judge Nicole Noman told the court.
Turner’s barrister Angela Cook argued that he had expressed remorse for his actions.
“He has to live with the consequences of what occurred in 2016 and he has been sorry since then, regardless of the formal legal pleas along the way,” she said.
Turner will be sentenced next Thursday.
