SDHB reviewing case of misdiagnosed brain bleed

Alex Cottier

Alex Cottier (21) was taken to the Lakes District Hospital from the rugby sevens in January after he suffered an arteriovenous malformation and collapsed in the crowd.

Vanessa Cottier

Mr Cottier said he and his mother met the board's general manager Ian Winwood and the hospital's operations manager Norman Gray last week, and they promised to formally investigate the incident.

"I got a call last week and they said they were doing a full clinical review into the whole situation."

He said the meeting went well and he expected a response from the board within five weeks.

On the day he collapsed, when Mr Cottier was taken by ambulance to the hospital, the staff had assumed his unconscious state was a result of heavy drinking, but he had had four standard beers before vomiting and passing out.

Only when hospital staff were approached the following day by a nurse who had seen the incident the day before, did they concede it was more than a hangover, and he was sent to Invercargill hospital for a CT scan of his head.

The scan detected bleeding on the brain and 30 minutes later he was flown to Dunedin Hospital, where he had another CT scan and neurosurgery.

Mr Cottier remained in a high-dependency unit for a further two weeks after the operation and is now awaiting radiation therapy.

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SDHB reviewing case of misdiagnosed brain bleed