Two families have delivered heartbreaking accounts of how a gas fitter's actions forever altered their lives after their newborn babies were mistakenly administered nitrous oxide at a Sydney hospital. Christopher Laurie Turner appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court on Friday over the botched gas installation at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, which resulted in the death of one infant and left another with severe, lifelong brain injuries.
Charges and Guilty Pleas
Turner now faces the possibility of up to 25 years in prison for the 2015 error. He has been charged with one count each of manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm by omission. Initially pleading not guilty to both charges, he changed his pleas to guilty in October as his trial date approached.
Families' Harrowing Impact Statements
Victim impact statements from the parents of both children were read aloud in court, revealing the profound and lasting effects of the tragedy.
The Baby Girl's Story
Danal Khan's daughter suffered nitrous oxide poisoning as a critically ill newborn but survived. She now lives with permanent brain damage requiring around-the-clock care. "The day she was born should have been the happiest moment of our lives but has become a lifelong tragedy," her father Danial Khan told the court. "She lives every day with injuries she did nothing to deserve." Her condition leaves her susceptible to seizures due to severe and permanent brain damage.
The Baby Boy's Story
The baby boy would have recently turned nine had he survived. His mother wrote that his death brought extreme suffering upon her family. "Nothing will change for me, nothing is going to bring my boy back," she said.
The 2015 Installation Error
The court heard that Turner had been contracted to connect neonatal oxygen lines to the birthing suites at the hospital. However, due to an error made in 1996, the nitrous oxide gas pipeline lines in the roof had been mislabelled as oxygen, a mistake that went unnoticed for years.
Turner accidentally connected the wrong lines during this routine job in 2015. He was obligated to carry out tests to ensure everything was correct after finishing the work, but he never performed these checks, despite filling out forms certifying that he had done so.
Prosecution and Defence Arguments
Prosecutor Rossi Kotsis urged the court to impose a prison sentence, arguing it was only appropriate given the consequences of Turner's negligence. He noted that the follow-up tests Turner never conducted would have taken only a couple of minutes to complete.
Judge Nicole Noman agreed, stating these tests "could have been done with very little effort and very little time."
Turner's barrister, Angela Cook, said her client had shown genuine remorse for what happened and has been sorry since the baby boy's death in 2016.
Previous Legal Proceedings
Turner had previously pleaded guilty to failing in his duty under the Work Health and Safety Act and was fined $100,000 in 2020. He was arrested and charged in August 2022 following a coronial inquest into the baby boy's death.
Turner will be sentenced on February 26. He remained silent and made no comment when confronted by reporters outside court.
