Adjudication No. 426 (November 1990) [1990] APC 33

ADJUDICATION No. 426 (November 1990)

The Press Council has upheld a complaint by Mr Michael and Mrs Janet Bice concerning a report in the Adelaide Sunday Mail on 20 August 1989 about the death of their sou. The report appeared under the headline, "My Tim died from lemonade".

Although new medical evidence suggests the traditional home remedy of flat lemonade and other drinks high in sugar content may worsen life-threatening dehydration in cases of gastro-enteritis, and although this question was rained in the inquest, it was not found to have contributed to or caused the child's death.

The headline, and the front page photograph of the boy with another headline, "The little boy killed by lemonade", were unsupported and misleading.

The coroner found that a breakdown in communications between hospital staff and the treating doctor's failure to administer a drip led to the boy's death by dehydration. Mrs Bice was originally interviewed by the Sydney Sunday Telegraph, and a photograph was taken by that paper to accompany a general article advising mothers with young children suffering from gastro-enteritis to dilute lemonade before giving it to their children. However, Mrs Bice denies certain aspects of the Sunday Mail article, including the headline, "My Tim died from lemonade", which she says she did not say.

In reply, the newspaper indicates that the article was prepared from an interview carried out on behalf of the Sunday Telegraph. That article, however, differs significantly from the Sunday Mail report which is the subject of the complaint, in that the latter attributed the child's death to lemonade.

The Editor says the Sunday Mail regrets that Mr and Mrs Bice may have been distressed by the article, but he did not feel an apology was appropriate. However, the headline and front page caption were in fact unsubstantiated and supported by neither the interview nor the coronial inquest and therefore the complaint is upheld.