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  • Lilli's death preventable: Qld family

    Author: AAP

The family of a six-year-old girl who died after surgery say her treatment in a Brisbane hospital was incorrect.

The family of a young Queensland girl who died after she underwent surgery to address a hereditary blood disease say they hope the coroner can determine why she lost her life from a preventable condition.

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In June 2011, Lilli Sweet, then aged four-and-a-half, underwent a splenectomy, or removal of the spleen, to address her Spherocytosis.

Lilli's father and grandfather both have the condition, which affects the red blood cells which are mistaken by the spleen for damaged cells and attacked.

Lilli was discharged 24 hours after her surgery and referred for follow up to a GP and pediatrician.

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Two years later, in August 2013 she suffered nausea, vomiting and neck pain and was admitted to the emergency department of the Nambour Hospital, where she received treatment for dehydration and was given pain relief medication.

Antibiotics were administered the next morning.

However by that time Lilli was suffering from severe sepsis, counsel assisting the coroner Megan Jarvis told a pre-inquest hearing in Brisbane on Tuesday.

She died in the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane after unsuccessful emergency treatment.

The inquest heard pneumococcal meningitis was later found to be the cause of death.

The family was now seeking answers as to why treatment was not carried out correctly, Lilli's grandfather William Sweet said outside the court.

"I've had the same disease and here I am at 75 years of age, and as fit (and) as well as anybody can be," he said.

Mr Sweet said the entire family had been impacted by the tragedy, including Lilli's twin brother.

"(She was a) typical girl that loved pink, everything had to be pink - her room was pink, her clothes were pink," he said.

"A very vibrant girl and very smart girl. (We're) very proud of her."

The Queensland Coroner's Court will examine the circumstances around the death and the appropriateness of the treatment provided over four days in November.

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