A Pattern of Preventable Adverse Outcomes at a Specialist Hospital

People in wealthy countries take the low infant mortality rate for granted, but it was not too long ago that the death rate for children under age five was so high that people hesitated to get their hopes up about their babies surviving; this was the main reason that birth rates were so much higher than they are now. Many medical advances have contributed to a high survival rate for babies. For example, thanks to the widespread availability of antibiotics and vaccines, it is possible to treat or prevent many infectious diseases that can be fatal without these interventions. Awareness of safe sleeping conditions for infants has reduced the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome. Even congenital heart defects have attained the status of just another medical condition to treat and to manage. The success rate for heart surgery in infants has been consistently high for many years, so it raised red flags when a Florida hospital with an established reputation for neonatal heart surgery had a disastrous year, with a high rate of catastrophic outcomes. If your child suffered preventable complications of heart surgery, contact a Fort Lauderdale medical malpractice attorney.

Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute Receives Multiple Complaints After Personnel Changes

When parents find out that their baby has a congenital heart defect, they are usually terrified, but pediatricians reassure them that the prognosis is much better than they think it is, but the baby will need surgery at one of only a few hospitals equipped for such a delicate procedure. For many Floridians, the nearest such hospital is Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute in St. Petersburg. Until 2016, the hospital maintained its good reputation, but things went bad in 2017, after a series of personnel changes. The Tampa Bay Times published a report detailing some of the worst outcomes that happened at the hospital:

• Out of the 30 heart surgeries the doctors performed, three infants died. That is a mortality rate of 10 percent, compared to the nationwide average of three percent. Other infants suffered complications but survived, some of them with permanent injuries that will cause lifelong disability.
• Several infants contracted infections or had their surgical wounds reopen. In neonatal surgery, these are “never events,” which means that they are entirely preventable if doctors and hospital staff adhere to the standard of care.
• Two infants had needles left inside their bodies after surgery and needed additional surgery to remove them. This is a never event, regardless of the patient’s age.
• Doctors told one family that their newborn daughter’s heart defect could not be corrected, and that she had no chance of survival. The parents sought a second opinion, and the baby eventually underwent surgery in Chicago. At the time the Times published the report, the child was three years old and healthy.

Several of the parents filed medical malpractice lawsuits against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute.

Set Up a Consultation Today

A personal injury lawyer can help you file a medical malpractice lawsuit if you suffered adverse effects from surgery.  Contact Boone & Davis in Fort Lauderdale, Florida or call 954-566-9919 to explore your potential recovery options today.

Source:

projects.tampabay.com/projects/2018/investigations/heartbroken/all-childrens-heart-institute