Community
5 April, 2025
Parent’s heart-felt fight
WITH just one paediatric cardiologist at Cairns Base Hospital and appointment wait times exceeding a year, a local mother is battling to secure the care her daughter with a heart condition urgently needs.
Tegan Catalano’s daughter Violet was born with a rare condition called ‘transposition of the great arteries’, a rare heart defect where the two main arteries leaving the heart are reversed so her heart doesn’t pump oxygen to the body.
After many life-threatening interventions, Violet – now four-years-old – is living a normal life, one that’s being threatened by the oversaturated paediatric cardiology services at Cairns Base Hospital.
“This causes so much anxiety for me and my husband, she’s always going to have a heart condition, she’s always going to need a specialist,” she said.
“Her paediatric cardiologist is Dr Ben Reeves, he’s being stretched out thin.
“Violet was due for a check up in January, it was postponed and then it was postponed two more times and built out to almost four months, we’ve never had a delay like this.
“You can’t see she (Violet) has a heart condition, the only way to check it is for a paediatric cardiologist to run tests, so we live with the anxiety that something could be wrong.”
Ms Catalano, who lives in Malanda, reached out to Barron River MP Bree James and eventually got Violet’s appointment moved ahead but she said this wasn’t enough.
“I did get my appointment, I’m very grateful to her but it’s a one-off thing, not a solution,” she said.
“Dr Reeves is not only the paediatric cardiologist, but also responsible for outreach services to remote First Nations’ communities. There needs to be another paediatric cardiologist.
“We have a Facebook group with other parents of kids with heart conditions and there’re parents who moved to Cairns a year ago and haven’t had their initial appointment.”
Another parent in the group, Juliana O’Neill from Edmonton, said this has been going on for years which she experienced with her son Levi, 4, who has congenital heart disease.
“In 2022, Levi was having decreased oxygen levels, he was admitted at hospital and we were told we’d have to wait until Monday to speak to the cardiologist as he wasn’t available,” she said.
“This is no fault of the cardiologist as I’m fully aware this amazing man is overworked and needs help with the demand. I called Queensland Children’s Hospital and we were flown to Brisbane that night.
“Dr Ben Reeves needs a better cardiac team and a partner cardiologist. The hospital has tried to advocate for this with no success.”
Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Services (CHHHS) chief executive Leena Singh said there was a shortage of paediatric cardiologists in the region.
“During 2024, we had nearly 700 occasions of paediatric cardiology service, with the average wait time for new patients being approximately 324 days,” she said.
“CHHHS currently has one paediatric cardiologist. We’re currently working with Queensland Health for a strengthened networked service approach to paediatric cardiology service delivery.
“We undertake regular service planning to ensure our services are prioritised according to health need.”
Ms Catalano said something needs to happen soon before a tragedy occurs.
“Something needs to happen really soon, it’s just going to get worse,” she said.
Barron River MP Bree James said the Crisafulli government would focus on delivering more doctors to regional hospitals to help reduce wait times.
