Almost three years after their critically ill toddler's "preventable" and tragic hospital death, her family wants to light a fire of change.
Pippa Mae White died from sepsis in June 2022, weeks before her third birthday, after being transferred to Orange Hospital in the NSW central west.
"It is very evident to us that our daughter Pippa should not have died," her mother Annah White said on Monday outside an inquest into the girl's tragic death.
The inquest, resuming this week, has heard of multiple healthcare failures including understaffing, a lack of training, missed opportunities for escalation and a dismissal of her concerns as a parent, Ms White said.
She took Pippa to hospital in Cowra on June 12, about three days after she began experiencing a high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea.
Eventually transferred to Orange, an experienced pediatrician believed Pippa was "getting better" after reading notes from a doctor at Cowra.
But Ms White testified that at the time her daughter was "lethargic" and vomiting fluids given to her.
At Orange Base Hospital, tests revealed the toddler had pneumonia with a complete white-out of her left lung.
But further delays occurred before she suffered two cardiac arrests and died about 12.30pm on June 13.
Speaking besides a portrait of her daughter wearing a dress of her favourite colour, yellow, Ms White asked those within the packed courtroom on Monday to consider Pippa as someone in their life they loved dearly.
"Now, imagine this tragic death occurred to your Pippa," she said.
"How does that make you feel? Hold onto that feeling.
"I hope hearing about Pippa's last moments during this inquest lights a fire deep inside you to fight for change - because your Pippas are still alive."
The family has suggested mandatory sepsis training, better resourcing of emergency departments and a system for patient, family or carer escalation such as Queensland's Ryan's Rule or Western Australia's Aishwarya's Care Call.
Ryan Saunders died of an undiagnosed streptococcal infection in 2007, with his parents feeling their vocal concerns about his condition were not acted on in time by Rockhampton hospital staff.
Parental advocacy not being acted upon was also raised after two-year-old Joe Massa died of a cardiac arrest at Sydney's Northern Beaches Hospital in September.
He was wrongly triaged and waited two hours for a hospital bed, his parents say.
Seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath died of sepsis on Easter Saturday 2021, hours after presenting to the Perth Children's Hospital emergency department with a fever and unusually cold hands.
Her parents had pleaded with clinicians to escalate care.
Pippa's inquest on Monday heard from the registered nurse who triaged the toddler at Cowra hospital and noted she had a very high heart rate.
Nikota Potter-Bancroft said she put this down to Pippa's anxiety because she seemed upset and did not want the hospital staff to touch her.
She was shown a phone video taken of the toddler struggling to breath and grunting 10 minutes before her assessment.
Ms Potter-Bancroft said she did not remember seeing Pippa in that way.
"Don't you accept that if she was breathing in that manner ... that was a serious failure on your part not to notice that?" the Whites' barrister Richard O'Keefe SC asked.
"Not necessarily because I didn't see it," Ms Potter-Bancroft replied.
The nurse admitted she had not looked at the hospital's pediatric sepsis pathway when assessing Pippa.
But she denied the toddler met the criteria or required a rapid response.
The courtroom was packed with Pippa's family and friends who travelled to Sydney for the inquest.
Outside court, Ms White described them as "Pip's army" who were all equally broken and shattered.
The inquest continues.
