Timothy Fehring, a healthy boy of 15, died while on a school trip to Europe after teachers and doctors dismissed his illness as mostly homesickness, despite severe symptoms such as frequent vomiting. He died six days into the trip on 28th June 2019.
Timothy was a year nine student at Blackburn High School in Melbourne and had developed an infection in his blood and lungs that turned into sepsis, which made his body shut down. During the six days he spent on the trip he had lost five kilograms, was throwing up repeatedly, experienced lethargy and struggled to walk.
He was taken to see a doctor whilst on the trip in Germany who said his symptoms were due to gastro, homesickness and constipation.
Coroner Simon McGregor stated that the two members of staff on the trip, who were responsible for the 17 students who attended the trip, had made the “wrong judgement” in treating Tim.
The coroner’s report showed that the 15-year-old had been vomiting repeatedly since the first day of the trip, despite not eating anything. The teachers believed he was suffering the effects of homesickness, jetlag and the change in climate. On the third day of the trip, he was taken to a chemist who gave him medication to help his stomach.
On 26th June, Tim was taken to Munich Children’s hospital. By this point, he was “exhausted, visibly pale and had noticeably lost weight”, said the coroner’s report. Tim was examined at the hospital where the doctor confirmed his symptoms were connected to homesickness and constipation.
The next day, the group travelled to Austria where Tim had to carry around a ‘vomit bag’ on a walking tour. The report said: “Tim had told the staff that he wanted to go to hospital, but staff considered that he was trying to avoid doing the planned activities such as the afternoon’s walking tour”.
Tim’s mother Barbara Fehring said she and her family were “appalled” when they learnt her son wasn’t taken to hospital after asking to be. “This child was sick all week, he had dark rings under his eyes, he lost 5kg, why weren’t they aware of all that?”
On 28th June, Tim was taken to the hospital where he was given a certificate to confirm he was fit for travel as staff had agreed he would fly home alone as his condition had not improved. Whilst there, Tim was not examined or tested and his teacher requested he be given anxiety medication. Tim had exited the room to get some air but was found a moment later unconscious with vomit all over himself and a bleeding nose. He was given CPR and rushed to the Vienna Centre for Social Medicine, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit in an ambulance. Here, a CT scan found severe swelling of the brain. Tim died shortly after.
Autopsies showed that he had a highly acute infection in his blood and lungs, which likely led to heart failure.
The coroner said: “With the benefit of hindsight, staff made the wrong judgement call that Tim's complaints were not sufficiently serious to justify him being excused from the afternoon walking tour.”
He also added that whilst staff had complied with the previous medical advice they received, they should have “sought, and then followed” the medical advice for Tim, “rather than restricting the medical advice sought to that of management of travel anxiety”.
Since the report, the Department of Education and Training in Australia has increased the staff-to-student ratio for overseas trips and revisited excursion policies. Tim’s family continue to advocate for change. They are supportive of the increased staff-to-student ratios and have suggested there be a registered nurse on all school trips.
