Bryn and Davy

‘The only force behind me contacting you guys was respect to [Bryn] that at least someone on this earth will always advocate for her. And for me as a father, if I died tomorrow, that I could say on my deathbed that I did everything for you, sweetheart.’

Davy is the father of Bryn, a teenager who is non-verbal and has high support needs.

‘We were given the opportunity when she was born … to switch the machines off. We didn’t,’ Davy told the Royal Commission. ‘The doctors and the consultants at the children’s hospital have said to us on multiple occasions [that] she only is living because of you parents, your commitment and attention to detail, love and care.’

Davy and his family live in a regional area where Bryn goes to a special school. One day a few years ago, her school phoned to say Bryn was ‘not well’. Bryn’s mother arrived to find an ambulance about to take her to hospital.

‘There was no aggressive, hysterical ranting and raving. [She] just asked, “What happened?” … and so [the school’s] reply was, “We don’t know.” Then it changed to, “She rolled off the foam mattress.”’

The ambulance took Bryn to the local hospital, which transferred her to a city hospital for further tests. Bryn was in a lot of pain.

‘[When] the volume of her crying actually goes down, her lips go blue and her skin mottles. And so that’s when we know her pain level is off the charts. When it’s like that, her epilepsy kicks in and she goes in and out of hundreds of seizures per day.’

The hospital found Bryn had a broken leg, but Davy said the level of pain suggested ‘something really, really wrong’. His wife pleaded with the hospital to do more tests.

‘We rang the [school] principal and said, “You need to find out what actually happened because it’s actually impacting her ability to get this treated properly.” And we couldn’t get a story out of the principal. We pleaded.’

After 10 days in hospital, Bryn’s condition deteriorated. After being admitted to intensive care, further X-rays showed she had a broken back.

‘You don’t get [several] fractured vertebrae from rolling sideways off a … mattress,’ Davy said.

Bryn remained in hospital for more than six months.

‘We to date have never been able to secure from the school the honest, accurate account of the incident that caused these injuries. We received impossible and changing accounts of what occurred. This resulted in a delayed medical diagnosis which then resulted in admission to intensive care.’

The education department investigated the incident, but Davy said he was ‘never privy to the investigation report and their findings’.

‘The only communication we had from them is they wanted us to give them access to [Bryn’s] medical files … It was the biggest insult because we thought, well, wouldn’t you just give us an answer to our question that was asked multiple times? Can you please just tell us what happened?’

Davy said Bryn’s care still relies on understanding exactly what happened.

‘We are not litigious people … We actually said to the principal we understand things happen, it’s not a perfect world … [But] it leaves you feeling bewildered [about] an establishment that is meant to advocate and protect and actually specialise in dealing with children with a disability.’

Davy said he’s telling Bryn’s story to the Royal Commission to ‘get the message out there’ that prejudice against people with disability continues underground when there’s no transparency, even in organisations that should know better.

‘You can legislate anything in the world, but if you don’t have a culture, a community, a society which rewards honesty and empathy, then it’s only going to get pushed further underground.’