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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-07 Daily Xml
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TRANSPLANT PATIENT

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (15:13): Will the Minister for Health provide further information about the Mount Gambier patient seeking a transplant?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:13): Earlier in question time, the deputy leader asked me about a patient in Mount Gambier who was taken to the airport by taxi and, as a consequence of that, missed out on a transplant and the kidney organ was lost. Let me just go through the facts.

My staff has contacted Professor Graeme Russ, the transplant specialist from the QEH, and asked for his advice in relation to this matter. He informed me that the patient was taken to the airport by a taxi. He told us that that is often what happens, because these patients do not need medical attention on their way to receiving the transplant; they are in reasonable health except that they need a transplant. They do not need an ambulance to take them to the airport.

The airport, I gather, was shut and it was an after-hours arrangement, but the patient managed to get on the aeroplane, was transferred to the hospital and did receive the transplant. So this is a good news story, but it does raise the question: how does the Deputy Leader of the Opposition get it so wrong time and again? She either forgets to check the facts or she just plain makes it up.

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