Lying to a sick child
By CLARE MASTERS Health Reporter
May 24, 2006
THE STATE Government lied to the family of terminally ill boy Lewis Cass for two months, saying it was doing everything possible to get him a wheelchair despite ordering it only two days ago.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Government placed the order on Monday – two days after the family said they had been waiting for a wheelchair since March.
Health Minister John Hatzistergos wrongly blamed the manufacturer to cover his department's inaction.
"As soon as the matter was drawn "to our attention, we immediately arranged to have the wheelchair ordered, and that's been done," Mr Hatzistergos said on Saturday.
"This is not the sort of thing you can buy off the shelf from Bing Lee."
But a spokesman for the Sydney-based company said they only received the order at 11.04am last Monday – despite delivering the quote on March 31.
"We only just got the order so it is difficult to see how it could be a delay when the part hadn't even been ordered," the spokesman said.
If the wheelchair had been ordered when the quote was received it is likely Lewis would have been racing around his backyard weeks ago.
Lewis, who has a terminal degenerative muscular condition, was facing several months wait for his motorised wheelchair until his family went public with his plight in March.
At almost three the toddler has enough movement left to be able to operate the motorised chair; the only way he can get around. A highly intelligent child trapped in a body that is betraying him, he used to use a 25-year-old chair to play Spiderman and chase his brother.
But once that chair broke down he was unable to get around without help. One of the longest surviving children in Australia with the neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), his family want him to have the chair so he can see some of the world he is unlikely to grow old in.
Spokesman for Mr Hatzistergos Richard Lenarduzzi told The Daily Telegraph yesterday morning the Government had done all it could to expedite the process and the delay was due to parts coming from the US.
On the same day Lewis was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after a cold turned into severe pneumonia.
His father Craig Crass said yesterday Lewis was in a critical condition but had improved.
"He has turned a corner, he is still in intensive care but he is a fighter,'.
For donations send to Muscle Clinic Research and Development fund, Sydney Children's Hospital (for Lewis Cass) Locked Bag 5, Randwick NSW 2031.
By CLARE MASTERS Health Reporter
May 24, 2006
THE STATE Government lied to the family of terminally ill boy Lewis Cass for two months, saying it was doing everything possible to get him a wheelchair despite ordering it only two days ago.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the Government placed the order on Monday – two days after the family said they had been waiting for a wheelchair since March.
Health Minister John Hatzistergos wrongly blamed the manufacturer to cover his department's inaction.
"As soon as the matter was drawn "to our attention, we immediately arranged to have the wheelchair ordered, and that's been done," Mr Hatzistergos said on Saturday.
"This is not the sort of thing you can buy off the shelf from Bing Lee."
But a spokesman for the Sydney-based company said they only received the order at 11.04am last Monday – despite delivering the quote on March 31.
"We only just got the order so it is difficult to see how it could be a delay when the part hadn't even been ordered," the spokesman said.
If the wheelchair had been ordered when the quote was received it is likely Lewis would have been racing around his backyard weeks ago.
Lewis, who has a terminal degenerative muscular condition, was facing several months wait for his motorised wheelchair until his family went public with his plight in March.
At almost three the toddler has enough movement left to be able to operate the motorised chair; the only way he can get around. A highly intelligent child trapped in a body that is betraying him, he used to use a 25-year-old chair to play Spiderman and chase his brother.
But once that chair broke down he was unable to get around without help. One of the longest surviving children in Australia with the neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), his family want him to have the chair so he can see some of the world he is unlikely to grow old in.
Spokesman for Mr Hatzistergos Richard Lenarduzzi told The Daily Telegraph yesterday morning the Government had done all it could to expedite the process and the delay was due to parts coming from the US.
On the same day Lewis was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after a cold turned into severe pneumonia.
His father Craig Crass said yesterday Lewis was in a critical condition but had improved.
"He has turned a corner, he is still in intensive care but he is a fighter,'.
For donations send to Muscle Clinic Research and Development fund, Sydney Children's Hospital (for Lewis Cass) Locked Bag 5, Randwick NSW 2031.
