As the Victorian Department of Health issues a warning for parents due to a rise in cases of meningococcal disease, Melbourne parents Ben and Steph Souvatzis, speak about the death of their son, 19-month-old Noah Souvatzis on 31 December 2021.

Noah’s passing “destroyed their world” on New Year’s Eve, when a series of poor judgements by medical professionals meant their son tragically waited too long for the care he so urgently needed.

“In the space of 24 hours he went from being a happy, joyous toddler playing with his new Christmas toys, to leaving our world at only 19 months old,” reads their statement on a GoFundMe page which collected donations for the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in his memory.

Noah became ill on 29 December after waking from a nap. His parents phoned Nurse On Call who directed them to Alpine Health Myrtleford Hospital. According to the parents, on arrival owing to their boy’s deteriorating health, they’re told to go to Northeast Health Wangaratta Hospital.

Here, despite nurses’ and his parents’ grave concern for his health, the attending doctor wasn’t convinced of the seriousness of Noah’s condition, suspecting he had contracted a common virus, the parents told the Herald Sun.

He was discharged a few hours later in spite of the fact he could not stop vomiting.

Desperately seeking the care their son required, Ben and Steph drove Noah to Benalla half an hour away. There an on-call doctor at an emergency centre immediately contacted the Paediatric Infant Perinatal Emergency Retrieval (PIPER) team at the RCH.

But the operator at RCH did not send the specialists to Noah, according to Ben and Steph Souvatzis.

“The PIPER team admit they made mistakes. We’ve had a meeting with them and they said ‘yes, listening back to all the recordings, we made some serious mistakes’.”

“They can’t say why they didn’t pick up on the doctor’s concerns and deploy the team immediately…,” Steph said in an interview with the Herald Sun.

It was at this time the couple were sent back to the Wangaratta hospital by ambulance with their son becoming sicker by the minute, now experiencing seizures.

When they arrived in Wangaratta, a brain scan was performed. Initially doctors said the scan showed all was normal, but soon after said he would need to be intubated. Noah was now struggling to breathe on his own.

The PIPER team was called again, this time deployed by plane to transport him to Melbourne, and as they arrived Noah’s health worsened.

“After multiple mistakes and oversights from other hospitals who tragically did not take our concerns seriously, our little boy was flown to the Royal Children’s Hospital,” their statement on GoFundMe says.

They couldn’t go with their son by plane to the RCH, having to make a 200 kilometre drive to reach their ailing child.

When they arrived, they were sat down by hospital staff who told them, that their son Noah had suffered brain-death; now only being kept alive by life support.

“We couldn’t believe it. We just cried. I just felt so helpless. And even in that moment, you just concentrate on all the mistakes that were made, what they did, and thinking what we should have done. It just hits you all at once that you’ll never see him again,” they told the Herald Sun.

A Safer Care Victoria inquiry made several recommendations, but no one was held responsible for Noah’s untimely passing.

“During our stay at the hospital, the staff mentioned they would bring in an armchair for us – instead they brought in an entire hospital bed, allowing Noah to be placed between us both, and for all three of us to spend one last night all sleeping next to each other, with Noah cuddled between us.”

“We will never forget this generosity, it provided us with so much peace in the harrowing weeks that followed,” they said.

Through the GoFundMe appeal, Noah’s parents collected contributions adding to over $37,000 which they split between donations to the bed sponsorship program on the Rosella Ward at the RCH, and the Meningitis Centre Australia.