• Jacqui Siou suffered severe complications after a routine injection, ending up in intensive care. 
• Health NZ apologised for her ‘considerable distress’ and is conducting an internal review of the case. 
• Siou plans to complain to the Health and Disability Commissioner. 

A woman who suffered an acute infection, blood clots, and bleeding in her stomach following a routine injection says she has lost faith in “incompetent” health professionals. 

“I’ve never been scared of death, but I am now,” Jacqui Siou said after ending up in intensive care during a series of medical mishaps at Wellington Hospital. 

Health New Zealand has apologised to Siou for the treatment she received in early February and says it is conducting an internal review of her case. 

Siou, meanwhile, plans on making a complaint to the Health and Disability Commissioner. 

NZME has seen medical notes and correspondence from the health agency that also contains apologies to Siou and acknowledgement of the “significant distress” caused to her. 

Siou, a self-employed single mother of three, was left without an income after 17 days in hospital, largely dependent on a wheelchair, resorting to a foodbank and unable to afford train passes so her children could get to school. 

The 46-year-old developed a severe streptococcal infection in her joints after having a Zoladex injection to try to control chronic menstrual bleeding due to fibroids while she waited for a hysterectomy. 

She phoned the hospital to complain about a painfully swollen foot and hand but was told these were not side effects of the injection and was dissuaded from going to the emergency department. 

Jacqui Siou spent 17 days in Wellington Hospital. 

Condition worsens, ambulance called 

However, she was eventually taken there by ambulance when her condition worsened and a bacterial infection was diagnosed. 

Siou’s later hospital discharge summary says the infection was probably caused by the Zoladex injection. 

“We are very sorry this has happened because these injections should not result in such infection,” clinical staff said in the discharge notes. 

Siou underwent two operations for “washout procedures” for the infection in her wrist and ankle, followed by intravenous antibiotics. 

While she was recovering from surgery, she developed blood clots in her legs and chest. 

Hearing the “crackles” in her breathing and recognising symptoms from past illness, she says she told a doctor she thought she had blood clots in her lungs. He told her she did not. 

Hours later, she raised the question of blood clots with another doctor who told her she had indigestion. 

The next day she had ultrasound, which confirmed she had a deep vein thrombosis in her leg. 

Orderly a ‘guardian angel’ 

She was then taken for a chest scan but was left alone “bawling my eyes out” on a trolley in a corridor until a “guardian angel” hospital orderly found her and arranged to take her in for the scan, which confirmed she had a pulmonary embolism — a potentially dangerous blood clot in the lung. 

Back on the ward, she says clinical staff contradicted her when she told them she had received no blood-thinning medication, which would have helped prevent clots, since her earlier surgery. 

“I was like, ‘No, I haven’t. I’ve had no injections’, and then they all looked at each other. They walked out and came back in. One was crying, saying ‘Oh, we’re so sorry’,” Siou said. 

Siou subsequently developed a gastric bleed, but says she was again told she was wrong when she complained she was vomiting blood. 

“I was really nauseous. I started vomiting up blood. This was about 7am and I said to the doctor, ‘It tastes like blood’. He looked at it. He was like, ‘Oh no, that’s not blood’.” 

Staff insisted the vomit was bile and not blood, even though they were told they were wrong by Siou’s mother, a former nurse, and a friend of Siou’s who was also a nurse, at a different hospital. 

Hours later, after Siou had vomited several times, another doctor accepted she was bringing up blood and ordered the first of several blood transfusions. 

Siou was taken for another operation, this time an endoscopy and a “clipping” treatment of a 12mm bleeding gastric ulcer. 

As she was taken into intensive care before the operation, she “freaked out”, believing she would not wake up because she knew her blood pressure had dropped so low. 

A letter from Health NZ Te Whatu Ora, sighted by NZME, apologised both for the blood clots and the bleeding in Siou’s stomach, and because she felt that clinical team members had not listened to her. 

Jacqui Siou has received apologies from clinical staff and Health NZ. 

“We acknowledge the significant impact this has had, and the considerable distress it has caused you and your whānau,” the letter said. 

After discharge, in a moon boot and partly reliant on a wheelchair, Siou’s problems continued. 

Self-employed in her own beauty salon, she was left without income and resorting to a food bank while she waited for help from ACC and Winz. 

Now Siou is anxious because the hysterectomy she was waiting for will have to be delayed while she recovers from her recent ordeal. 

She wonders what will happen when she gets her next period. She had the Zoladex injection because her periods had been leading to bleeding for up to seven weeks, requiring her to have blood transfusions. She fears the blood thinners she now has to take for two more months will make them worse. 

“I said you guys [hospital staff] have shot me in the foot because as soon as I get my period and I start bleeding, I’m on blood thinners, and I was already bleeding out and having blood transfusions, and so I’m scared,” she said. 

Health NZ apologises 

Jamie Duncan, Group Director of Operations at Health NZ Capital Coast and Hutt Valley, said the agency treated any “adverse event” involving a patient extremely seriously. 

“We have apologised to Ms Siou for distress she experienced while in our care,” Duncan said. 

“We continue to work with Ms Siou as we undertake an internal review of her case. 

“We cannot comment further until it is complete.” 

A friend has set up a Givealittle page for Siou. 

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay.