There are around 40,000 appendectomies done in Australia each year. 'That is the least Luca deserves.' Deaths rare, but doctors urge cautionĪrthur Richardson, an upper gastro-intestinal surgeon and former Royal Australasian College of Surgeons fellow, said the death rate from appendicitis in Australia was just 0.02 of a per cent of the 40,000 appendectomies done each year. 'You can't bring them back, so learn from the mistakes and put things into place so it doesn't happen again. It is too late when a child dies, it is too late when anyone dies,' she said. Ms Degenhardt said she was worried that without updated guidelines for checking vital signs, more children could die. 'In the coroner's report, all the experts agreed that general practitioners are given adequate training through the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners in relation to diagnosing appendicitis and its management.' Want more local news? Sign up to ABC Newcastle's weekly email newsletter.

'Unfortunately, this condition can be difficult to diagnose,' acting RACGP president Associate Professor Ayman Shenouda said. Nearly a year after the inquest concluded into Luca's death, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has told the ABC it was satisfied that Australian GPs get appropriate training.

If they had been taken and recorded on either of those occasions that he visited the GP in the space of 3 days, Luca's body would have told them what was happening,' she said. That claim has stuck with Luca's mother, Michelle Degenhardt.

'The devil is in the detail,' the coroner said. New South Wales state coroner Teresa O'Sullivan made no formal recommendations, but she did make some comments relating to a diagnosis. Luca Raso died after his appendix ruptured in 2017.

Appendix burst