No doubt, all parents would describe their worst nightmare as seeing their child very ill and trying to get an accurate medical diagnosis and treatment before the situation worsens. Any medical crisis requires the people involved to trust experienced medical professionals to follow the appropriate steps to rectify the situation, whether in California or elsewhere. Unfortunately, not every patient’s experience ends well, sometimes because the physicians involved failed to follow the appropriate standard of care. Sadly, this may have been what happened for two parents from a different state who filed a medical malpractice suit claiming wrongful death after their infant son died following an emergency room visit.
Doctors advise hernia surgery for baby
According to the complaint, the baby had swelling in his groin area two weeks after he was born in 2018. The child’s mother took him to a local hospital’s emergency room. Doctors ordered an ultrasound, and the results indicated the baby had a hernia. The mother was told the baby would need surgery and to contact his primary care physician the following day for a consultation; mother and baby were then sent home. The baby’s symptoms worsened later that night, and the mother brought him back to the emergency room, where he was examined and released.
Mother returns with baby to emergency room
Reportedly, the next morning, the baby was not eating and was vomiting and lethargic, with a very high temperature. The mother went back with him to the emergency room, where an X-ray showed he had multiple loops in his small intestine. He was flown to a different hospital, where he underwent two surgeries over the next two days, but his condition continued to deteriorate. Sadly, sepsis set in, and he died a few days later. Recently, following mediation, the parents agreed to settle the medical malpractice suit against the hospital where their son died; the terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
Many California residents, especially those who are parents, may find this horrific sequence of events difficult to process. Surely, these parents trusted medical professionals to apply their expertise to provide the best possible care for their son. Often, people who feel they or a loved one has been a victim of medical negligence choose to consult an attorney experienced in medical malpractice cases who can sit down with them and discuss options for legal recourse.