When Melbourne parents Chandra Sekhar Lanka and Satya Tarapureddi brought their daughter Amrita to Monash Children's Hospital with stomach pains, they had no idea of the tragedy about to unfold over the next 21 hours.
Amrita Varshini Lanka was suffering from stomach pains, vomiting and fever on April 29 when her father took her to their general practitioner, who then referred Amrita to the hospital with suspected appendicitis.
After two hours of waiting to be triaged in the emergency department, the hospital conducted an abdominal scan on the eight-year-old.
Medical staff told her mother it was not appendicitis and that her daughter likely had gastroenteritis.
About 9pm that night, Amrita was given fluids administered via an intravenous drip but said she was experiencing "hard breathing" soon after.
"She told me, 'Mama, hard breathing, hard breathing', then immediately I pressed the staff assistance button but nobody came," she said.
"I went to the reception and checked with them and said 'I've been waiting 20-25 minutes, my daughter is experiencing hard breathing. Can someone come and have a look?'.
"After 15 minutes they came and told me she had an empty stomach — she's not had any food for two days — so it's common, you need not worry."
Ms Tarapureddi said she was told by staff that her daughter could be discharged a few hours after receiving her fluids or in the morning after being reassessed.
At 3am the next morning, a doctor took a blood test in response to their concerns about Amrita's breathing – nearly six hours after first sounding the alarm.
Three hours later, Amrita was moved to a short-stay room where medical staff realised she was in a critical condition.
Soon after, she went into cardiac arrest.
Her father was back at home with her nine-year-old brother Venkata and rushed back to hospital upon hearing the news.
"By the time I saw my daughter, her heart [had] stopped for two minutes, but they revived her," Mr Lanka said.
"She was saying that 'I want to talk to Dad'.
"I was crying. She was not crying, she was just staring at me, I said to her: 'so many doctors here, you'll be out soon, they're working on it'."
Amrita Lanka died at 10:17am on Saturday morning, about 21 hours after she arrived in hospital.
The search for answers
Her parents still do not know the cause of Amrita's death but are welcoming an external investigation into the circumstances that led to her suffering cardiac arrest.
"We want the truth to come out. If it is an external inquiry so be it, but at the end of the day everyone going to hospital needs to feel secure and [we] really need to know what happened in our case," Mr Lanka said.
Mr Lanka said his wife alerted the hospital up to five times overnight about her daughter's breathing difficulties but was brushed aside every time.
"My wife was pressing that button for staff assistance, staff were coming in but they were dismissing it under some pretext 'probably an empty stomach'," he said.
"If they had put more attention to her, maybe today my Amrita could be sitting next to me," Ms Tarapureddi said.
"We just want answers – what happened to my Amrita?"
In a statement, Monash Health said it had contacted the family for support and an investigation would be undertaken.
"This is a very upsetting time for the family, and we offer our sincere condolences to the child's family and friends," a Monash Health spokesperson said.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley also expressed his "thoughts and deepest sympathies" for the family.
"Losing a child is not something any parent should have to endure," Mr Foley said.
"I've asked Monash Health to ensure they complete a full clinical review and they have already referred the incident to Safer Care Victoria and the Victorian coroner, which is the standard practice when a patient dies in care."
Monash Health has confirmed to the ABC the incident is being treated as a sentinel event, a designation set aside for the most serious cases of patient harm and death that have resulted from adverse patient safety events.
Shadow Health Minister Georgie Crozier accused the government of mismanaging the health system.
"The entire system is in crisis, it can't cope. This is a dire situation when you've got the tragic story of that little girl," she said.
"They've had no response from government, they've had no apology, they've had nothing."
Premier Daniel Andrews said Amrita's death was a "terrible tragedy", but added the COVID-19 pandemic had placed the health system under unprecedented strain.
"There's no doubt though, politics won't solve this nor will Liberal Party health funding cutbacks either," he said.
"It's about patients, it's about supporting doctors and ambos and nurses. It's about recognising this is a one in 100-year event and staff are exhausted."
A family left with a 'vacuum' in their lives
The family had a funeral for their daughter on Saturday. Amrita was described as a lively and chatty girl at home but a calm and shy one outside who was kind to everyone.
She loved pets and always wanted to become a vet.
Amrita was incredibly close to her older brother, who is still coming to terms with losing his sister.
"After an hour [from Amrita's death] he comes back and says 'when will Amrita be awake?'" Mr Lanka said.
"That's when I realised he didn't know what death is, he is struggling because it's a small family and most of the time he spent with his sister.
