Personal Injury Law

Three Questionable Infant Deaths Lead to Hospital Investigation

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

The death of an 8-month child last week has sparked a local investigation into Tacoma?s Mary Bridge Children?s Hospital. As reported in The Olympian, this death involved a young daughter swallowing prescription medication. Authorities will are waiting the return of a toxicology test to more conclusively explain the cause of death.

Strangely this was the third young child killed in the area. The week before, a newborn was killed in route to Children?s Hospital after a medical mistake. A hospital staff member erroneously administered medication to the young child without any doctor?s orders. That medication error caused the infant?s death.

Two days after that tragedy, an 8 month old child died at the same hospital following an overdose of calcium chloride. An investigation into that particular accident led to the conclusion that it was an ?adverse event,? meaning that the mistake should have been prevented.

As this string of terrible child deaths shows vividly, when dealing with young bodies, medication mistakes often have tragic consequences. The protective systems of the body are yet to be fully developed in these young infants, meaning that inappropriate drugs or inappropriate doses of drugs entering these bodies can wreak much more damage than if given to an adult or even an older child.

Our Chicago medical malpractice lawyers at Levin & Perconti understand these risks all too well. Our team of experts has dealt with many instances of medication problems that have had deadly consequences. Our medical malpractice attorneys have also worked frequently on errors involving infants and young children. We work hard to ensure that the legal rights of the families that have been traumatized by these preventable mistakes are protected.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on October 11, 2010 (boomark / email).