Festival medical leadership ‘abhorrent’

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An experienced paramedic who treated a dying NSW festivalgoer has told an inquest the lack of leadership inside the event’s medical tent was “completely abhorrent”.

Melbourne retail assistant Diana Nguyen, 21, and Sydney student Joseph Pham, 23, died after overdosing on MDMA at Sydney music festival Defqon.1 on 15 September 2018.

They are among six people whose recent drug-related deaths at NSW music festivals are being scrutinised at a coronial inquest.

NSW Ambulance intensive care paramedic Timothy Mascorella said it was clear the instant he saw Mr Pham he was showing signs of MDMA toxicity and needed to be transported to hospital immediately.

But he said the private contractor managing the medical tent was overwhelmed by the number of patients and lack of medical equipment available.

“I found it extremely difficult to deliver care to (Mr Pham) as there was no team leader established,” Mr Mascorella told the inquest on Friday.

“The doctors were giving the patient medication during (his cardiac arrest) that we weren’t aware of.

“I found the lack of leadership and crew resource management of the Event Medical Services crew to be completely abhorrent.”

Mr Mascorella said EMS had earlier explicitly assured him NSW Ambulance paramedics would only be needed for transport as the private contractor was capable of providing initial treatment to those falling ill in the festival’s 30,000-strong crowd.

But the paramedics agreed that, by the evening of the event, the medical tent was overwhelmed.

He said it was located in the centre of the festival grounds, which was “probably good for the patrons but it wasn’t good for us”.

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“There was no right of passage,” Mr Mascorella said, adding festivalgoers banged on the ambulance and became excited by the lights as it drove through the crowd.

Nathan Tran, Callum Brosnan, Joshua Tam and Alexandra Ross-King – all aged between 18 and 23 – also died from MDMA toxicity or complications of MDMA use after attending festivals between December 2017 and January 2019.

Traces of potent stimulant PMMA was detected in the blood of Mr Tran, concerning Canberra emergency doctor David Caldicott.

“This is the sort of information that needs to be released to the general public – particularly the consuming public – immediately,” Dr Caldicott told the inquest on Friday.

PMMA is sometimes sold as MDMA but can be more lethal, in part because its lesser euphoric effect causes users to take higher doses, he said.

The Calvary Hospital specialist pointed to a 2016 example in The Netherlands when 172mg of PMMA – a “clearly dangerous dose” – was detected in a batch of pills and a major public warning was issued.

No deaths attributable to the pills were recorded.

The inquest continues.

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