WHANGAREI: News of a delay in referring a toddler for specialist bowel surgery has prompted a former Whangārei Hospital patient to share her account of alleged failures in her care she says left her permanently impaired.

Glenys Bean, 77, said she contacted the Northern Advocate after reading about Harpreet “Harman” Brar’s 15-month-old son’s ordeal at the hospital earlier this year.

He was flown to Auckland’s Starship children’s hospital, where surgeons removed 20cm of his bowel.

Bean said her experience led her to sympathise with the toddler’s family and their concerns about accountability.

“All I actually ever wanted was an apology,” she said. “That would have meant mountains to me.”

Health New Zealand says it has apologised, taken her concerns seriously and responded appropriately.

Bean said her ordeal began in 2024 when she was admitted to Whangārei Hospital with a strangulated hernia, a potentially life-threatening condition.

According to Bean, complications arose after emergency surgery when a wound ruptured, allowing bowel contents to leak into her abdominal cavity.

She required a second operation in which surgeons cut her from the belly button to the pubic area to clean out the contamination and removed about half a metre of bowel, leaving her with ongoing health issues nearly two years later.

Bean said she remained grateful to the surgeon who performed the second operation, which she believes saved her life, but was unhappy about what she alleges occurred during the first surgery.

The former broadcaster and literary agent said she initially attempted to pursue a complaint but was too exhausted by her recovery to continue.

“I’ve got to save my energy. I’ve only got a limited amount, and it needs to be spent healing,” she said.

However, Bean later renewed her concerns and has spent much of the past two years pursuing them through the hospital and Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC) process without achieving the accountability she sought.

She felt her complaints were dismissed or defended against rather than addressed.

Bean said she was particularly frustrated that the HDC repeatedly referred her concerns back to the hospital for local resolution, rather than reaching its own conclusion.

She felt it meant there was a lack of independence in the process.

Bean said she eventually requested a meeting with hospital staff once she had recovered sufficiently to pursue the matter again but came away feeling she had not received a fair hearing.

Health New Zealand group director of operations Northland Alex Pimm said all feedback regarding patient care was welcome.

“We acknowledge Ms Bean’s concerns and apologise for the distress she has experienced.

“Health New Zealand has taken Ms Bean’s complaints seriously, including organising a meeting with her, our surgeon and our service manager, and provided follow-up letters.

“We have received communication through the Health and Disability Commission (HDC), an independent statutory body that receives, assesses, and investigates complaints, which we responded to as part of Ms Bean’s complaint.”

Pimm said HDC referred the complaint back to Health NZ for local resolution.

“If Ms Bean has any further concerns to discuss, we are happy to discuss these with her.”

Bean admired the young mother’s determination and believed many other patients would struggle to advocate for themselves as effectively.

Bean hoped sharing her story in support of the boy’s mother would help future patients get better service.

“I would really like something to change,” she said.

Meanwhile, Brar said she attended a meeting with Health New Zealand representatives last week but was disappointed the clinicians directly involved in her son’s care were not present.

She said managers and clinical directors apologised and told her staff had acted to the best of their abilities in dealing with a rare condition, while acknowledging lessons could be learned from the case.

Brar said she had requested all her son’s medical records and would review them before deciding whether to pursue a complaint with the HDC.

While she said her son was recovering well and beginning to regain weight, the experience had left her with little confidence in the service.

“I have zero trust,” she said, adding that she would take him directly to Auckland in future if he suffered another serious bowel-related illness.