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The parents of the newborn who survived the nitrous-oxide gassing at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital have spoken for the first time.

Danial and Benish Khan welcomed their first child in June. Baby Amelia was born via caesarean at the west Sydney hospital, soon after birth her parents realised something had gone terribly wrong.

Amelia had suffered irreversible brain damage, which left her with constant seizures, dependent on a feeding tube and in need of constant high-level care.

Weeks later they learnt that their baby was mistakenly administered nitrous oxide pumped through an oxygen line in one of the hospital’s resuscitation units, reports SMH.

“It’s devastating as a parent to be told that your precious daughter has suffered permanent brain damage,” Mr and Mrs Khan said.

“We just want everyone to know what happened to Amelia won’t ever go away.

“She will always have to live with the consequences of what was done to her at the hospital. But we will always be by her side and we’ll do everything we can to give her the best possible future,” they said.

It took the death of newborn boy for the hospital to finally identify the cause. Baby John Ghanem died after he was administered nitrous oxide from the same pipeline less than one month after Amelia was born.

“We can only imagine the intense pain this family is going through and our hearts go out to them,” the Khans said.

The family’s lawyer, Libby Brookes from Maurice Blackburn said, “Amelia’s family and Maurice Blackburn hope that by investigating exactly what occurred at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital we can prevent this ever happening again to another family and restore some confidence in the system.”

Chief executive of the South West Sydney Local Health District Amanda Larkin said: “I offer my most sincere and heartfelt apology to the family at this distressing time.”

“Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital has had ongoing contact with the family following the birth of their baby,” Ms Larkin said.

“Following discussions last week a range of additional services have been proposed to support the family’s ongoing needs,” she said.

Premier Mike Baird has promised compensation is being fast-tracked for the family.

Mr Baird said the government is doing everything possible to support Daniel and Benish Khan.

“We will expedite anything we can and certainly that’s what we are doing at the moment … we (want to) take as much stress off as we can,” Mr Baird told reporters on Tuesday.

At the same hospital a stillborn baby and a miscarried baby were mixed up, resulting in the wrong baby being cremated.

We hope something is done urgently to prevent these cases ever happening to another family.

Share your comments below.

Image via SMH

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  • This is just such a tragic story. I cant imagine how angry and hurt that family must be.

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  • That is why connections should be checked my at least one other staff member.

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  • utterly heart breaking

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  • This would be a devastating thing to have to endure. No compensation or saying sorry can replace what has been taken away from these loving parents.

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  • How horrific. To go through the stages of giving birth and then being told that a mistake was made and unfortunately your baby has died or will live with a permanent disability. All because someone made a stupid mistake. I hope that person never gets employed at a place of care again and is dealt with severely

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  • No apologies or compensation will ever ease this lifelong burden for the family.

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  • This is so sad and should never have happened. No excuses. This family needs to be looked after in every way possible by those responsible.

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  • This is very upsetting. No family deserves to go through this.

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  • Such an awful, preventable disaster. Poor little ones, & their families!!

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  • An awful mistake with such a horrendous consequences !!
    Compensation is nice and good and necessary, but doesn’t and will never heal/restore their wee girl.
    Bless this family, hope & pray they receive all the help, support & love they need.

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  • Such incompetence. I feel for the parents of this dear little one. I can only hope and pray that something good will come of this and that this will not take place to any more children or parents. So tragic when there is something so irreversible such as this, but I know she is in good hands with such loving and reliable parents. May she grow strong and bring joy to her loving family.

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  • This was really a terrible thing. This little girl will suffer from brain damage for all her life. Not fair. I hope the Government will help the family as much as possible through this hard time.

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  • poor little darling, such a sad situation with horrible consequences

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  • Something that should never have happened will now have life long consequences. I wish this family strength.

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  • Such a terrible thing to happen, that poor family.

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