Family to sue healthcare provider after son’s death

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A father will sue one of the nation's top healthcare providers after his son went to hospital with an ulcer and never came home. 

Darren Tyson, from Mildura in north-west Victoria, alleges Ramsay Health Care, which operates all over Australia, failed to properly manage his son's condition. 

Charles Tyson went to hospital with an ulcer on his foot several years ago and was meant to be home within days.

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A Mildura father will sue one of the nation's top healthcare providers after his son went to hospital with an ulcer and never came home.

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Charles went to Mildura Hospital with an ulcer on his foot several years ago and was meant to be home within days.

"They rang us at 4.30am on Wednesday morning and told us that he'd passed away," Darren Tyson said.

The night before his expected discharge the 33-year-old took a turn for the worse and died.

His family allege Ramsay Health, which was managing Mildura Hospital at the time, is to blame.

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"The people that have obviously made huge mistakes need to be brought to task," Charles' brother Zack Tyson said.

"They are highly trained, supposedly highly educated and highly paid."

The family claimed despite their insistence, Charles – who was on dialysis at the time – was taken off crucial medication he needed to survive and that medical records proved treatment of the ulcer wound was mismanaged.

A Mildura father will sue one of the nation's top healthcare providers after his son went to hospital with an ulcer and never came home.

"I wasn't heard, nobody cared what we had to say," Charles' mother Julie Tyson said.

"There's a reporting of when his toes were removed that the infection improved. It's very, very clear in the coroner's report he had 10 fingers and 10 toes," his father Darren Tyson said.

The family plans to launch legal action against Ramsay Health.

"We have not finished and we will never finish and we will take this where it needs to be taken," his father said.

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Ramsay Health Care said the matter had already been dealt with three years ago through a coronial hearing.

"No adverse findings or recommendations were made against Mildura Base Hospital," a spokesperson said.

Even though the hospital is now under public management, it is also under fire.

9News has obtained a dossier of complaints from community members fed up with service they claim is substandard.

Jenna Doeke is furious at the hospital, claiming doctors failed to recognise her baby daughter Pixie was in heart failure.

She said it was something that was only picked up when she arrived at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

"She said, 'This is actually very serious, your baby is very sick'," Doeke said.

"I said to her, 'Is she going to make it?' and she said 'I don't know'."

The hospital disputes her claims and insists she was updated throughout the ordeal.

It has also implemented 17 recommendations to improve its procedures in the wake of Charles Tyson's death.

But his family said it was not enough and Charles' case needed re-examination.

"He'll never get to be there for our funerals, we did his instead," his father said.

"We need justice for Charles."

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