{"id":70348,"date":"2026-08-12T11:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/70348\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:41:15","slug":"kate-sylvias-death-preventable-sa-deputy-coroner-finds-after-inquest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/70348\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate Sylvia\u2019s death \u2018preventable\u2019, SA deputy coroner finds after inquest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The death of a \u201ckind, sweet\u201d 32-year-old from a blood clot was preventable, with medical professionals missing two opportunities that could have saved her life, the deputy state coroner has found.<\/p>\n

Kate Marie Sylvia died in December 2021 after a doctor diagnosed her with a migraine and sent her home to sleep it off.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday morning, deputy state coroner Naomi Kereru handed down her report that stated the woman\u2019s death could have been prevented if she had been referred to hospital for a scan. <\/p>\n

Ms Kereru\u2019s report found two missed opportunities for imaging would have ultimately saved the young woman\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overwhelming conclusion is that Kate\u2019s death was preventable,\u201d the report stated. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was dealing with a condition that is diagnosable on readily-available imaging and has clear treatments that have very good success rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf either of those two opportunities were taken, Kate would have been sent for a scan.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the balance of probabilities, (it) would have revealed abnormal intracranial pathology which would have then led to an ultimate diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Kereru provided four recommendations to the health minister and the SA Health and SA Ambulance Service chief executives, including a directive for SA Health to consider a program allowing families to escalate hospital care when their concerns are not taken seriously.<\/p>\n

Kate\u2019s mother, Kathryn Jean Sylvia told the coronial inquest in December 2024<\/a> that a doctor at Hospital Avoidance and Supported Discharge Service in Sefton Park had informed her Kate was too young to have a stroke.<\/p>\n

Ms Sylvia said the doctor had diagnosed her \u201ckind, sweet\u201d daughter with a migraine and told her to go home to \u201csleep it off\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kate and her parents were at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for 12 hours, five of those waiting for a transfer to the Royal Adelaide Hospital to investigate a blood clot in her brain and multiple bleeds. <\/p>\n

Her sister-in-law, Denise said outside court that (Kate) \u201cwas a beautiful soul, she was very special\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement SA Health offered its sincere condolences to the Sylvia family.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the Department for Health and Wellbeing and SA Ambulance Service are reviewing the coroner\u2019s findings handed down today and will consider the recommendations,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The death of a \u201ckind, sweet\u201d 32-year-old from a blood clot was preventable, with medical professionals missing two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95779,39801,86550,51159,40509,48253,95780,95761,95793,95796,95802,70952,95795,95768,44488,95765,62035,95766,37726,95788,95797,44757,95799,95776,22,21,95794,14339,39070,50725,95767,95777,95772,18571,95764,57585,95758,95800,57213,42221,95771,49864,44568,95773,95786,39,95762,95755,28973,95784,95756,95798,95778,95785,95783,36526,95757,95789,26891,64434,95760,52339,23933,95775,95782,95790,95759,46124,64451,42680,95787,39868,39084,95801,74263,71513,95769,45709,48275,45712,95792,95791,37141,51728,52529,95781,31666,95774,95763,39970,95770,22441],"class_list":["post-70348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-kate","tag-s-death","tag-s-findings","tag-s-life","tag-s-mother","tag-s-report","tag-12-hours","tag-a-kind","tag-a-32-year-old","tag-a-beautiful-soul","tag-a-blood-clot","tag-a-condition","tag-a-deputy-coroner","tag-a-directive","tag-a-doctor","tag-a-migraine","tag-a-program","tag-a-scan","tag-a-statement","tag-a-stroke-ms-sylvia","tag-a-transfer","tag-a-young-woman","tag-abnormal-intracranial-pathology","tag-an-ultimate-diagnosis","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-clear-treatments","tag-coroner","tag-december-2021","tag-december-2024","tag-denise","tag-deputy-coroner","tag-deputy-state-coroner-naomi-kereru","tag-families","tag-four-recommendations","tag-health-and-wellbeing","tag-her-kind","tag-her-brain","tag-her-death","tag-her-home","tag-her-kate","tag-her-life","tag-her-parents","tag-her-report","tag-her-sister-in-law","tag-hospital","tag-hospital-avoidance-and-supported-discharge-service","tag-hospital-care","tag-imaging","tag-its-sincere-condolences","tag-kate-marie-sylvia","tag-kate-sylvia","tag-kathryn-jean-sylvia","tag-medical-professionals","tag-migraine-misdiagnosis","tag-morning","tag-ms-kereru","tag-multiple-bleeds","tag-outside-court","tag-probabilities","tag-readily-available-imaging","tag-sa-ambulance-service","tag-sa-health","tag-sefton-park","tag-seriously-kate","tag-sweet-32-year-old","tag-sweet-daughter","tag-the-report","tag-the-balance","tag-the-coroner","tag-the-coronial-inquest","tag-the-death","tag-the-department","tag-the-deputy-state-coroner","tag-the-doctor","tag-the-health-minister","tag-the-overwhelming-conclusion","tag-the-queen-elizabeth-hospital","tag-the-recommendations","tag-the-royal-adelaide-hospital","tag-the-sa-health-and-sa-ambulance-service-chief-executives","tag-the-sylvia-family","tag-the-woman","tag-the-young-woman","tag-their-concerns","tag-those-two-opportunities","tag-today","tag-two-missed-chances","tag-two-missed-opportunities","tag-two-opportunities","tag-very-good-success-rates","tag-wednesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}