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**_Gia Lam’s death should force us to confront the conditions that make missed diagnosis more likely, including rushed communication, inadequate interpreting, unclear discharge instructions, weak follow-up and a system that continues to treat language as peripheral to care, writes Dr Yinghua Yu and Professor Azadeh Dastyari_**. Gia Lam, a 32-year-old new mother should have been celebrating life with her newborn baby. Instead, as reported by ABC news, the Vietnamese national who moved to Sydney in 2010 died three days after giving birth from sepsis caused by a urinary tract infection (UTI). The coroner found there were multiple missed opportunities to diagnose and treat Lam’s infection and highlighted repeated failures to provide interpreter services despite Lam’s limited English proficiency. The tragic fate that befell Lam should concern us all, not as an isolated incident, but as what it reveals about the systemic failures in our health system. It is alarming because our health system is designed with an assumption that patients can navigate birth, pain, infection, discharge instructions and follow-up care in English. Communication is a patient safety issue. A misplaced assumption of English proficiency, with insufficient support for people who may need additional language assistance leads to a heightened risk of delayed diagnosis, missed deterioration, unsafe discharge and preventable harm. Lack of language support in maternity care is particularly dangerous because pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period involve repeated interactions with health professionals at moments of heightened risk, recovery, transition and uncertainty. A woman may move between GP visits, antenatal clinics, hospital triage, birth suites, postnatal wards, child and family health services and emergency departments. At every point, communication shapes what symptoms are disclosed, what clinicians hear, what tests are ordered, what warnings are understood and whether a woman feels safe to come back. Research consistently shows that patients from migrant and refugee backgrounds face additional barriers within Australia’s maternity system. A synthesis of 27 Australian studies involving women from 42 countries identified issues such as interpreter access, structural barriers, trust in healthcare, discrimination, experiences with health workers, and conflicts between traditional cultural expectations and the Australian medical system. And specifically, limited English proficiency made it difficult for women to communicate during appointments and hospital care, understand maternal health education, ask for services, and know what was happening to them. An inability to give informed consent because of an inability to understand the language is a safety issue. Reliance on partners or relatives to interpret sensitive symptoms, medication advice or worsening pain, can raise concerns about privacy, accuracy and informed decision-making. Research in NSW has found that culturally responsive care requires organisational commitment, targeted resources and accountability to meet the needs of refugee and migrant communities. Australian health policy already recognises these challenges. Australia’s National Maternity Strategy emphasises safety, respect, choice and access, while the NSW Women’s Strategy 2023-2026 recognises women and girls from culturally and linguistically diverse communities as a focus community. NSW Health’s standard procedures set out the use of professional interpreters where communication cannot occur adequately in English. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has similarly identified that a woman’s cultural and linguistic background can shape her experience of pregnancy and maternity care, while access to appropriate interpreters, targeted services and continuity of carer can improve outcomes. Despite this understanding, there is strong evidence that concerning gaps between policy and practice continue to exist. Interpreters were frequently absent during appointments and hospital care, leaving women confused, distressed, and unable to participate fully in their care. What the tragedy of the preventable death of Gia Lam shows us is that we need practical and pragmatic change. The need for interpreters should be identified early, documented clearly and treated like a clinical safety flag throughout pregnancy, birth and postnatal care. Professional interpreters should be routinely available for critical conversations involving diagnosis, consent, treatment decisions and discharge planning. Additionally, maternity services in diverse communities should invest in bicultural/bilingual workers, multicultural health staff, maternity liaison roles and community partnerships. This is particularly concerning in Western Sydney, where Lam lost her life, one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world, with people from more than 170 countries speaking over 100 languages. Gia Lam’s death should force us to confront the conditions that make missed diagnosis more likely including rushed communication, inadequate interpreting, unclear discharge instructions, weak follow-up and a system that continues to treat language as peripheral to care. Australia often celebrates multiculturalism in public life. But multiculturalism in healthcare cannot stop at posters in waiting rooms or translated brochures on a website. Cultural responsiveness must be embedded in every stage of our health system. Gia Lam’s tragic death should be a wake-up call, reminding us that communication failures in healthcare can have devastating, even fatal, consequences. **Dr Yinghua Yu is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Western Sydney at Western Sydney University, with expertise in health services research, patient safety, social policy, and community engagement.** **Professor Azadeh Dastyari is Director at the Centre for Western Sydney at Western Sydney University, where she leads research and engagement focused on the opportunities, challenges and future of Western Sydney.** Share this Maternity carepatient safetyWomens Health by Women's Agenda 23 hours ago ## Stay Smart! Get Women's Agenda in your inbox * Email * Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. 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Some are describing what Sir Sam Neill had as “positive masculinity”; I’ll just go with masculinity. Neill stood up for people and for his convictions: conservation, his love of community, animals, art, and good wine. Still strong and ruggedly handsome as he grew older. Still humble, warm, and funny, and still happy to promote and celebrate others’ work. In a world of Claviculars, Andrew Tates and billionaires campaigning to pay less tax, find a way to be more like Sam. In a world that gives attention to individualism and rewards those who put others down, remember that the same world had Sam. In a world of Weinsteins and Epsteins, Sam earned fame through sheer talent and grit. In a world of “drill baby drill” slogans of destruction, remember those who’ll use their platform and power to campaign to protect the environment and communities, just like Sam. Still out for the greater good – acting in a thoughtful movie, entertaining an audience, providing a voice for a local community contending with the destructive wishes of a large multinational. It’s telling that just a week before he died, Neill shared a post partnering with local activists in New Zealand, using his power and name to help stop a gold mine being dug into a mountain. He stood up for conservation well into his final days. He also stood up to support women. Just last month, he celebrated “four women I have idolised for decades” as they were being honoured at the ARIA Hall of Fame awards, including Jenny Morris, Kate Ceberano and Linda Bull. He noted that Jenny was inducted by their former prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, whom he described as “another hero”. Ardern said she felt profoundly sad by the loss of Neill, describing him as a “thoughtful, curious, and decent person. Someone who was principled, unafraid of speaking his mind, and willing to take up a fight when he saw injustice” “He was also an artist, and anyone who watched him perform knew he was someone special”. Of course, Neill is remembered for his talent, including his roles in Jurassic Park, The Piano, Event Horizon, The Hunt for Red October and Peaky Blinders. _Wired_ magazine described him as inspiring a generation of scientists through his role as a paleontologist in the 1993 film Jurassic Park. They, too, noted his approach to “positive masculinity” and said the generation of scientists he inspired came down to heroes of Jurassic Park being the level-headed scientists who used their intelligence rather than guns and physical strength. They had purpose and absolute conviction, and Neill successfully demonstrated these traits in the way he played Alan Grant, and he showed them in real life too. **_Sam Neill as Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park_** Given what colleagues have said about him, Neill was also a wonderful human to work with. _Jurassic Park_ director Steven Spielberg described him as “exceptionally collaborative”, co-star, Laura Dern, said he showed her “the depths of loyalty, protectiveness and love always with the driest of wit.” In interviews, Neill listened intently. He would take a moment to reflect before offering a generous response. His recent appearance on ABC’s _The Assembly_ proved just how thoughtful he could be. When an audience member asked him about one lesson he learnt from his parents, Neill was visibly moved. He paused, his eyes watered, and he apologised, noting how the question had stirred him. When he responded, he talked of his parents being stoic, living through the Depression and his mother losing her father during World War Two. He recalled one moment, after mucking around at university when he told his mother he was breaking down and didn’t know how he’d get through his exams. “She just looked at me, and she said, ‘well, you’re just going to have to pull yourself together, aren’t you?’ And I think that was the best lesson I learnt … Sometimes, you just have to pull yourself together.” Neill’s family shared news that he passed away on the 13th July in Sydney, Australia. He was surrounded by family and “passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life.” The post noted the loss was sudden and unexpected, with Neill only recently sharing that he’d been declared cancer-free. It has since been reported the actor was suffering with pneumonia in his final weeks. Neill had previously been open about his cancer diagnosis and treatment. He told the BBC in 2023 that, “I’m not afraid of dying. What I don’t want to do is to stop living because I really enjoy living.” Sir Sam Neill died at the age of 78, survived by four children and eight grandchildren. Share this Jurassic ParkmasculinitySam Neill by Angela Priestley 21 hours ago ## Stay Smart! Get Women's Agenda in your inbox * Email * Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Δ ## Latest news ### The real secret to career success isn’t confidence—it’s trust ### The hardest part of Menopause wasn’t the symptoms. It was finding someone who could help. ### Why rebuilding the ‘village’ could transform motherhood for thousands of women ### The bakery ad shaming women to sell cakes is part of a long history of sexist advertising ### Sextortion is rising and eSafety says Big Tech isn’t doing enough to prevent it ### How an International Court judge thinks about hope

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