Counsel assisting Sarah Ford asked Collins if there were limitations to morphology scans.
“It’s operator dependent. There’s a lot of limitations,” he said.
“Position of the baby, size of the mother. All of these things could have a bearing on the limitations.”
Collins said the ultrasound machinery was “more than adequate” for routine ultrasound scans.
Barrister Anna Cappellano, acting for Collins, asked him how Thea’s heart could have had specific features that suggested she did not have transposition.
“There are different types and that’s one of the reasons why the best centres in the world are sitting at 40 per cent for all they can find,” Collins said.
“We should see classical transposition but unfortunately in this case we did not see it.”
Radiologist Stephen John Sinnott testified he had interpreted Thea’s routine ultrasound and he handled the results of 15 to 20 similar scans every day.
Counsel assisting Geoffrey Diehm asked Sinnott if transpositions were not uncommonly missed in mid-trimester scans.
“Yes,” Sinnott said.
The Flaskett family’s barrister, Sarah Lane, asked Sinnott about an audit report from Redcliffe Hospital in 2019 that suggested the ultrasound machinery was below standard.
“The concerns you raised in the audit report about the machinery, are you able to say if they were acted upon, whether Thea’s transposition would have been detectable?” she said.
Gallagher stopped Sinnott from answering because of an objection to the question as being hypothetical and with too many unknown elements.
The inquest is due to go for another five days.
AAP
