Parents who know their children need medical care will take them to the doctor. When the situation isn’t something that can wait for an appointment, they visit the emergency room. They expect that their child can get proper care there, but this isn’t always the case.
One child’s parents took him to an urgent care facility because he was vomiting and cramping. His parents took him to an emergency room. The hospital admitted him, and his blood pressure was 126/93. His pulse was 104. The boy had an elevated white blood cell count. Ketones and protein were in his urine.
He was discharged after receiving oral and intravenous treatments. The child returned to the hospital three days later because he was constantly vomiting and couldn’t eat. That facility transferred him to a children’s hospital.
The report from the first hospital to the second didn’t note that the boy was vomiting and suffering from nausea. It stated that he didn’t have any signs of distress when he did. One of those was high blood pressure.
The boy was discharged again from the children’s hospital, but ultimately passed away. A lawsuit against several entities claims that negligent care and breach of standards of care lead to the child’s death.
While many people won’t have to deal with situations that are this dire, everyone should know that they do have legal recourse if the medical staff doesn’t care for them properly. There is no excuse for a child, or any patient, to suffer like this at the hands of people who should be caring for them. This case didn’t happen in this state, but it is still a stark reminder that hospitals do make errors that can cost lives.
