Mermaid Beach Radiology is fast becoming known as the place of last resort, for people who feel like they aren’t getting answers in the public system. Gold Coast mother Kay* tells us her desperate, exasperating story about saving her son’s life in the nick of time.
I knew my son, Brad* was really sick and he was in trouble. I went to one public hospital two times, then a different public hospital two more times, and we were turned away four times in total. Nobody took it seriously. I actually broke down to one of the doctors the third time and I begged them, BEGGED THEM to please do some tests. I pleaded with them to just find out what was wrong with my son. I feel like they didn’t even look at him. They just kept poking at him just poking at his stomach. And I kept saying, he’s extremely sick.
I know him. We’ve lived on the Gold Coast for over five years, and he never once went to the doctor in all that time. I kept saying, this is completely out of character. He’s extremely sick. He’d been vomiting for two and a half days continuously and couldn’t keep anything down. He didn’t have a fever. But he was in agony. My son was actually screaming, begging me to help him. Imagine that as a parent. And to see this tough little kid that is never unwell, actually begging for mercy from the pain? It was hideous.
Powerless
I can’t understand or explain why they didn’t do more. Why didn’t they take it seriously? My son was so sick and they were kicking him out with a drink of Mylanta, a heartburn treatment. They gave him a heartburn treatment, meant for adults, after nine hours of waiting, and said, go home, you’ll be fine. And I thought, this is disgusting. I don’t get it.
The doctor said, he is not sick enough for the scans. After the fourth visit, I begged them to do something, so they did an ultrasound, but they said they didn’t find anything. I argued with the head doctor. I was saying, “I feel like I’m in medieval times. You have all this equipment available to you, but you won’t give my son a proper scan? What is it? Budget? Politics?”
On the fourth visit to the hospital, they just told us Brad has muscle spasms in his stomach, and to go home and wait five days. I waited a day and a half before seeking further medical advice. I ended up at the GP who could see that Brad was extremely sick and understood that the two hospitals I had been to were not taking it seriously.
So, he said that Brad needed some urgent scans, and directed me to go to Mermaid Beach Radiology. He said the radiologist there would involve himself and get me answers. The GP said, “It’s a brand-new clinic. It’s not bulk-billed, so you have to pay for it.” But I knew how sick my son was. Not everyone has spare money on hand, and I’m a solo parent but it had got to that stage where I didn’t care, I just needed him looked at. My son was dying, and I needed someone who would help me urgently.
Mermaid Beach Radiology
We immediately went to Mermaid Beach Radiology. From the moment I walked in there, they were just brilliant. A young male sonographer did his initial ultrasound. After about 30 seconds he looked at my son, shocked, and said, “Oh mate, you are so brave. I can see what’s going on here.”
The sonographer then said, “I’m just going to get my boss.” And then that’s when he brought in Dr Zane Sherif, the owner of Mermaid Beach Radiology. Straight away they could see that my son had a perforated appendix. It had ruptured. So, all the times that we were going to the hospital, he actually already had a perforated appendix. He was extremely, extremely sick. Both the sonographer and the radiologist said that it was incredibly serious, and the extent of the problem would be best understood with an MRI. Their MRI would provide the most accurate imaging available for the surgery Brad would soon need. They could see the problem within 30 seconds of using their MRI technology. But the hospital wasn’t even using the technology that was available to them. We couldn’t get further than an ultrasound, and even that failed us!
Ambulance Arrives
Zane organised an ambulance, but I refused to go back to the hospitals that had turned us away. So, I chose to go to Pindara Private hospital. By the time we had arrived, Zane had called the emergency department to brief them on the situation. And, he had sent all of the scans to them so that we could go straight to theatre.
Zane and his team were brilliant, the IV they put in my son at Mermaid Beach Radiology was the same one that they used in the hospital. So, they didn’t even need to give Brad more needles when he arrived at Pindara. Mermaid Beach Radiology gave him fluids because he had already been sick for eight days. They did all this while I was making arrangements for my daughter to get home.
Brad arrived at Pindara in the ambulance and was literally in surgery before we knew it – it all happened so fast. My head was spinning. The surgeon came out and said, he’s very, very sick. His organs were actually sitting in rotten fluid, and his appendix was gangrenous.
I almost lost my 12-year-old son. It was obviously very, very close. He’s still extremely sick and he’s going to have repercussions now for the rest of his life. All because two public hospitals, wouldn’t listen, and kept sending him away. I have had no contact from any of the doctors that sent my very sick son away. I say this as he is getting treatment to get padding taken off and his drain seen to. He had a drain in him because of all of the fluids his body had accumulated.
Somebody needs to be spoken to about how our public system failed a 12-year-old boy. If I relied on the public system, I would be mourning the death of my son now. It could have been a very different alternate reality. I could have been going through a nightmare, an absolute nightmare. They need to be spoken to about revising how they look at people. Was it because of Covid? Was it because of a budget problem? Was it just because of inexperience? I don’t understand.
How could they have missed a ruptured appendix in 2021? Four times! They didn’t miss just appendicitis; they missed an appendix that had already ruptured. Everyone’s heard of appendicitis, it’s not something that’s obscure. We should have had scans the first time, even the second time…we didn’t even get them the third time! In the end, I did pay for scans from Mermaid Beach Radiology, but when you think about the small cost, versus what could have happened, it’s nothing to save your kid’s life.
A Total Rethink
The hospital system needs to seriously address how it thinks about scans. How much would the scans even have cost the hospitals? We went there four times. Think about what that must have cost them, instead of scanning Brad the first time and getting the right diagnosis. So much wasted time, it is a false economy.
Zane and his whole team were absolutely terrific. I can tell you; my son would not be here if we hadn’t have walked into that clinic. If I had have taken the hospital’s advice and gone home and waited the five days like they advised, he would have surely died. He wouldn’t have lasted even that next night.
I do have private health insurance. I’m originally from New South Wales, and they don’t cover ambulances there, whereas in Queensland they do. At the time, I did not care what it cost me, whatever extras I must pay, I just have to pay. I’m a solo parent and I’ve paid a hundred percent for my children for 11 years. I’ve done it all by myself. I should be able to rely on the public system.
I will have ongoing health expenses for Brad for the rest of his life because of the delayed diagnosis and treatment. It scares me and I don’t know what I’m going to have to do for him next. There’s going to be digestive issues, intestinal issues, all the scarring. It’s frightening. I would hate for this to happen to any other child. Very recently, it happened in Western Australia. A child died in the waiting room with a ruptured appendix while he was sitting there. He died. This shouldn’t happen. To anyone. Ever.
DR ZANE SHERIF:
A young mum arrived to see us on Friday, about two weeks ago, with her 12-year-old son. The mum was at the end of her tether and had spent every night that week in the emergency departments at different hospitals. Each time she’d been there with her son vomiting, generally unwell, and very, very sick. He was pale and gaunt, hadn’t eaten pretty much any night that week, and was complaining of horrific abdominal pain, which was relentless and not going away.
They were sent away with no investigations, except on the last visit. They had an ultrasound which failed to identify the problem. The boy was given Mylanta, for indigestion. Kids don’t usually get indigestion. Adults who drink alcohol and coffee and smoke do, though. They get ulcers and gastritis; kids virtually never do. So, it was so peculiar that they would even trial a drink of Mylanta. The following morning when they came to us, the child was clearly very unwell. The mother was understandably in obvious distress. She was desperate for answers and didn’t know where to go from there. When I went into the room, I saw mum and child. From the end of the bed, just looking at the child, I could see there was something seriously wrong. He was very, very pale, an ashen kind of colour, listless, just sitting there deathly still, not really saying or doing anything.
We did an ultrasound scan. Immediately we could see there was something horrible going on in his abdomen. Ultrasound, on a young, small child, with lots of gas in there, can be quite difficult. It’s hard to make out what is going on, but there was a clear abnormality in his right iliac fossa. We strongly suspected the child had a ruptured appendix and would need surgery, which would require as detailed imaging as possible. So, we strongly recommended an MRI scan to his mother.
We work at the bleeding edge of research and sequence development in MRI which allows us to perform scans that no other Radiology facility has clinically available. Our flagship Philips 3T Elition X research grade MRI scanner is using sequences years before they are commercially available on other machines. The MRI sequences we used on this young boy have been specifically designed for the highest accuracy and sensitivity to abdominal infection. We are constantly pushing the boundaries of this innovative MRI technology where we are translating what was once only thought of as research into clinical real-world solutions. This can rapidly and more accurately change the course of a patient’s management and life, as in this case.
Using this process, we could more confidently diagnose the ruptured gangrenous appendix and large abscess. Once we had that confirmed diagnosis, I called the hospital and spoke with the emergency department head and the on-call surgeon. The boy was rushed to hospital and went straight to theatre.
Brad will be dealing with the fallout and the scarring from this injury for the rest of his life. When that scarring happens in your abdomen, it never goes away. And you do not know if that scar can latch onto something else like your bowel, which can cause a bowel obstruction, which is a surgical emergency. So, he will have that in his rear-view mirror for the rest of his life.
It is a truly scary story. I mean, it is simply hard to believe in modern day Australia, that it is still so hard to access MRI, only the best imaging modality in modern medicine. ■
RYAN’S RULE
Ryan’s Rule is a protection for parents who feel like they aren’t being heard and that their child’s life is in danger. Ryan’s Rule applies to all patients admitted to any Queensland Health public hospital. Ryan’s Rule has been developed in response to the tragic death of Ryan Saunders, who died in 2007 from an undiagnosed Streptococcal infection, which led to Toxic Shock Syndrome.
Ryan’s parents knew their child better than any strangers. They were worried he was getting worse – they did not feel their concerns were acted on in time.
In light of his death, the Department of Health made a commitment to introduce a patient, family, carer escalation process (Ryan’s Rule), to minimise the possibility of a similar event occurring.
If you feel that your child’s life is in danger, and you aren’t being heard, you can invoke Ryan’s Rule. Once the rule is enacted, a nurse or doctor will undertake a Ryan’s Rule clinical review of the patient and the treatment they are receiving.
Queensland mum Ayla Gyde invoked the rule 3 years ago. “My little girl was admitted to hospital with suspected appendicitis. After speaking to the first surgical doctor, he explained this was likely the problem however he wanted a paediatrician to check her lingering cough to rule out possible Mesenteric adenitis (which is swollen lymph glands in the tummy). This was at 5.30pm Thursday. By 7am Friday I was told an ultrasound would be done that day. However, I watched my little girl deteriorate before my eyes and frustrated nurses pacing the corridors trying to find out what was happening. I had finally had enough and at 12pm l said. “I’m calling RYANS RULE NOW!”
Within 10 mins I was speaking to a different surgical doctor. By 45 mins she was getting an ultrasound done, and by two hours after calling Ryan’s Rule they were prepping my daughter for an emergency removal of her appendix as it had perforated. Turns out, the ultrasound hadn’t been ordered that morning, so we were waiting for nothing. Ryan’s Rule is a life saver.” ■
CT scan needed? At Mermaid Beach, there is a clinic which is the only private practice in Australia with new Spectral CT Scanner. Here’s what that means for you.
There is now a technology so innovative and disruptive, that it promises to turn medicine on its head. It is called Spectral CT and it is a revolution in the diagnosis game. This is the sharp edge of medicine.
The long name of the kit is the Philips IQon Elite Spectral CT. Or, Spectral CT for short. Mermaid Beach Radiology is the only private radiology clinic in all of Australia to have one. It can see inside you like no other machine on the market while having an ultra-low radiation dose. It can diagnose cancer you don’t even know you have, even before you feel sick.
A patient getting a CT scan
Just when you think things couldn’t get better for patient care – in the room next door is the Philips Ingenia Elition 3.0T X wide bore research[1]grade MRI. There are only 3 of these top-of-the[1]line MRI machines in private practice in Australia (the other two are in Western Australia).
Entrepreneurial Minds at Work
Dr. Zane Sherif is the brilliant mind behind the futuristic clinic. He’s a radiologist with a passion for technology and what it can do in the medical field. Alongside his wife, Dr. Kirralee Sherif, who herself has a Ph.D. in Engineering, Zane has opened Mermaid Beach Radiology. They are hoping that people of the Gold Coast (and much farther afield) will understand just what a gift it is to have access to these cutting-edge machines. He said, “Our bar for machine selection was, ‘what would we want to have ourselves, our kids, our loved ones scanned on?’”
A glimpse of the CT scan machine
Zane tells us about a recent case of his. “A patient came into use with a forearm issue. He’d been living with forearm pain for years and had seen multiple specialists. He was in relentless pain that no one was able to get on top of. He has been prescribed antipsychotics and antidepressants and all sorts of things. Nothing worked. He had accepted that he may have to amputate his arm to gain relief. Finally, he found us.
“Ben Kennedy, the MRI Clinical and Research Director, did his magic and finally, the patient had a diagnosis. There was a problem with his radial nerve. The radial nerve in our arm goes through a little tunnel, just off the bone. For him, that tunnel was too tight and it was inflaming the nerve. But you could not see it on any other scan until now.
“Ben was able to get an entirely new view of the nerve. He could trace its path through that tunnel. He could see that the nerve was thicker and brighter, but only in the tunnel. So we knew that it was getting stenosed. Now that we knew the problem, we could treat it. Within hours, we injected the area with some Cortisone, and for the first time in years, the patient had no pain. The Cortisone shrinks down the swelling around the nerve and could last for years, if not forever. This kind of case isn’t unusual, it happens here on a daily basis.”
Rise of Spectral CT Scanners in Queensland
In South East Queensland, there are six Spectral scanners in public hospitals. The hospitals have a much bigger budget to purchase the near two-million-dollar machines. They always have to have the best diagnostic tools. But there’s a waiting list and you may only get to use it after you have run the gauntlet of lower-end machines. And usually, you need to be a hospital inpatient. By then, precious time has passed.
Then there’s the machine in Mermaid Beach Radiology, which is a private clinic. In all of the other radiology clinics in Australia, there are a grand total of zero Spectral CT scanners.
As a private business, Zane and Kirralee had to answer the business case for spending so much money on one machine. Says Zane, “This piece of machinery is 10 times the cost of some CT scanners. An entry-level CT scanner costs about $200,000. The Spectral CT costs nearly two million dollars. But this machine takes a massive leap when it comes to diagnostic power. It is like comparing the phone that you used 15 years ago to the one you’re using now. We took a gamble because the medical community needs to do better for patients.”
Zane said that he wanted to move to Spectral CT technology when he worked for other radiology companies. “I was literally laughed out of the building. And yet… this machine is an absolute diagnostic monster. I wanted my patients to have access to this. So I said, right, I’ll buy it myself.”
And Mermaid Beach Radiology was born. Zane says the Spectral CT images give the radiologists diagnostic confidence in what we are seeing. “A lot of the time you might see something on a lower-end machine, and you really have no idea what it is. However, with the Spectral CT, we have more diagnostic confidence. The images are just far superior to what’s out there. I’m not saying we can answer every question, but we have the best tools known to science to help answer the more complex medical dilemmas.
Importance of High-Quality Scanners
“It does not matter how good a radiologist is if their tools are poor. If you’re looking through foggy glasses, all you’re going to see is fog. They could be an Einstein-level of intellect, but it is irrelevant. They can only report what they see, and if they can’t see it, they can’t diagnose it. But every single day, we are seeing pathology in patient’s Spectral CT scans that have not been seen using an older technology.
“There isn’t a day I’m not making a phone call to a referring doctor on a new case of unknown cancer or some other obscure diagnosis. I’ve never made so many phone calls in my career. We have a lot of patients come in here who know there is something wrong and haven’t yet been able to get a diagnosis. There was one gentleman who had five scans in the last six months with no answer. It was not until he got on the Spectral CT that we could see that he had cancer of his chest wall.”
Kirralee says, “There are times Zane shows me scans done on non-Spectral scanners, and you just cannot see cancer, even when you know where to look, we can’t see it. Then he’s like, ‘Have a look at this.’ And the cancer is so bright and unmissable.”
Zane says it is so important to be diagnosed early. “With modern medicine, our best chance at altering the course of a disease is in the early stages. Once it is chronic, forget it. The horse has bolted. You can’t unscramble an egg. Spectral CT is the future of radiology. In five years, everyone will have a Spectral scanner. But at the moment, it’s just Mermaid Beach Radiology who are offering it. We wanted to be an early adopter because this machine is your best shot.”
Holistic Medicine
Kirralee Sherif, the wife of Zane, is passionate about the experience the patient has at Mermaid Beach Radiology. As a working mother of four young children, she has the usual juggle of family and working life. But being busy doesn’t diminish her desire for the patient to feel cared for when they need it. She is intensely convinced that the patient journey is paramount and has made it her life’s work. “I had imaging done myself between my second third child. I had some really awful news, and I was sitting in a clinic in Sydney bawling my eyes out in the hallway, as everyone’s going past getting their images done. I was so alone and I just didn’t want anyone to ever feel the way I did that day. We designed this clinic so that the patient has a much better journey than that.”
The living wall, which sits behind the reception desk designed by local artist Lisa De Boer
The clinic has a dedicated room in case someone needs to hear bad news and two full-time nurses. The patient comfort room has a heated blanket, a TV, and if someone needs time with Zane to discuss a diagnosis or if they just need time with the nurse, they can have this room. It’s also a recovery room, and an observation room too.”
The Ambiance of Mermaid Radiology
When you walk into the clinic, it has an art gallery vibe. A living wall, looking like a tropical rainforest, in reception is beguiling, and unexpected. It is properly beautiful. Green life grows in a lot of places in the clinic. Says Kirralee, “All the plants in reception and throughout the building are real. There’s a lot to be said about the effects of greenery on health. We want our patients to feel as calm and as comfortable as possible – like they’re coming into a resort. It is hard enough coming into a place like this, let alone when it’s all clinical and scary.”
It is not even scary for kids. A kiddie room with a short-throw projector plays movies for the children who are waiting. When we were there, some kids were kicking back on the beanbags, watching their favorite show.
Kirralee and Zane are both passionate about the environment. Amazingly, Mermaid Beach Radiology is becoming a carbon-neutral practice, which is an excellent achievement for such a young practice. Says Kirralee, “I keep trying to instill in my children that we are here to make a positive impact. You have to treat the planet and all the living things on it with respect, and we want to model that in our work environment, as well.”
Kirralee and Zane are also on the same page with supporting local artists. “We used local suppliers where we possibly could as well. The front desk is all done by a local artist, Lisa De Boer. Sean Scott is a well-known photographer based in Burleigh. We’ve used his images all around the clinic and backlit them. We love the Gold Coast and as a family-run practice, we want the clinic to celebrate that.
“Zane has worked for other radiology companies. But we wanted to do things differently. We have a more patient-based focus. We aren’t about meeting strict goals. We just want to make sure that the patients have the best imaging journey that they can. If there’s something that can be done on the day, Zane will call the patient’s doctor and progress their imaging further. If injections are required, it can be done there and then, rather than the time-wasting to-ing and fro-ing with other doctors. That all adds to stress and pushes costs up as well.”
Radiology Expertise
Ben Kennedy is a world-renowned MRI scientist and researcher, according to Kirralee. He was formerly head of the MRI modality with the QScan group. When we go to see the MRI in action, he says, “Want to see something cool?”
We always want to see something cool. He says, “You want to see real-life cerebrospinal fluid flowing through the brain?” He points to the screen. “That’s CSF flowing in and out of the cerebral aqueduct.” It was amazing to see it live. It looked like tomato sauce being squeezed repeatedly through a hose.
Yep. We all stood there and watched spinal fluid flowing through the brain. It was fascinating. The question was asked, “Do all of our bodies do that?” Ben answered, “I hope so.”
MRI is typically considered the most sophisticated imaging tool in radiology. As a pre‑emptive strike, or as a way to get a fast, accurate, early diagnosis, the value for money using MRI is incredible. But even if you feel fit and well but just want peace of mind that there is nothing dark brewing, you can waltz in and get an MRI scan with no radiation.
Says Zane, “You can wake up one day and say, ‘I’m curious what my brain looks like today. I want to go get an MRI.’ And just get it done. We have had people who’ve just come in and just chosen to have a full-body screening for cancer on the MRI. And we’ve almost found something on every one of them. The pick-up rate is huge. We are now the go-to place for doctors on the Gold Coast who want to get themselves and their kids checked out.”
Going Off-Piste
The conventional route of diagnosis is not one Zane is a fan of. “If you’re sick, you don’t wake up one day going, ‘Right, I’m going to go see my doc today. I hope he/she starts me off on this process with the worst available tests.’ But that’s exactly what happens. You go and see your doctor, sick.
You’ll almost always start off with an X-ray which is a 125-year-old technology. Then you might get to an ultrasound. You will rarely get to a CT, and almost never get to an MRI. By the time that has happened, it could be too late. Ask anyone, what is the best diagnostic camera in medicine? Everyone will say MRI. Yet it’s the last thought, not the first thought in the investigative process. Which is bonkers.”
While Medicare will not refund the cost of an MRI scan, which starts at $360, it is still very much worth the price. Says Zane, “Medicare is a great safety net for the less privileged. But it has also forced our thinking towards the idea that we should never put our hand in our pocket when it comes to health care. That is just the wrong mentality.”
It is suspected that the monkey in question has a very serious case of fluffyitis
There’s no better way to spend your money than on your health, so you will be around for your loved ones for a long time. You spend similar amounts of money on your hair, a good meal, a couple of bottles of wine. You ARE worth it. In fact, we are all worth it. And in this case, technology is very definitely our friend. ■
How to Make an Appointment
Mermaid Beach Radiology offers Wide Bore 3T MRI, Spectral CT, Cone Beam CT, Ultrasound, X-Ray, biopsies, and all pain relief injections all using the very latest technology. You can make an appointment for any of these, and they accept referrals from all over Australia.
