Family at breaking point with three-year-old girl still waiting for heart surgery

A three-year-old girl with a potentially life-threatening heart condition is still waiting for surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital, due to the crisis in Victoria’s health care system.

It’s the only hospital in Australia she can get the operation done.

Her Adelaide family is at breaking point.

Press PLAY below to hear their story

Luke Gregory is the girl’s father and explained the frustrating situation on Thursday.

“We got the call on Friday saying she’d have surgery on Tuesday this week, so we drove over on Sunday and then went into the hospital,” he explained.

“We got there before 7am on Tuesday and went through all the pre-op stages, basically got ready to gown her up, surgery was scheduled for a 10am start.

“We got told at 10 past 10 there were no ICU beds available, so they couldn’t proceed with the surgery.”

They were sent back to their hotel and told to return on Wednesday.

They did. The same thing happened again.

And it was the same story again today.

Same thing happened again the following day.

Same story again today.

Mr Gregory said the hospital was understaffed, there weren’t enough rooms available and the specialist surgeon was only available on certain days.