Recently our attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers discussed the topic of medication mistakes with children in a blog, after actor Dennis Quaid filed another lawsuit against Baxter Healthcare Corporation, after his twins were given a near fatal dose of medication in the hospital.
Sadly, in another children’s medication mistake incident that our attorneys have been following, a 19-month child in Omaha recently died after being given medication in a hospital that was improperly administered into her body.
The child, Alicia Coleman, was born twelve weeks premature, and battled a gastrointestinal disorder, but had been a fighter from the start according to her mother, Dominique Coleman, and was reportedly getting stronger with improved health. Coleman claimed that doctors had even recently claimed that her daughter’s medications would soon be cut in half, as the child was just starting to walk and talk.
Coleman claims that after dropping her daughter off at Children’s Home Healthcare’s World, where Alicia was due to receive medication, a nurse mistakenly made a medication error while giving the child a drug that was supposed to slow the absorption of food in her system. Instead of putting the drug into Alicia’s feeding tube, the drug was reportedly put into a tube that was the central line to the child’s heart, causing a seizure and cardiac arrest.
The Children’s health care facility and the Children’s Hospital & Medical Center both reportedly attempted to resuscitate the child for more than an hour, with doctors even calling the drug’s manufacturer and poison control. The hospital said in a statement that they believe that human error led to the accidental death of Alicia, and they wish their deepest condolences to the family.
Dominique reportedly said that although she believes that her daughter’s death was not intentional, she can’t move on until she knows that responsibility has been taken, and changes are put into place to make sure that this kind of medication error doesn’t happen again to other children and families.
If you or someone you love has been a victim of a medication mistake in the Washington D.C. area or in the state of Maryland, call our Lebowitz and Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers at 1-800-654-1949 to schedule your free consultation.
Medication Mistake Kills Toddler at Hospital-Run Care Facility, KPTM.com, June 1, 2010
Related Web Resources:
U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Medication Error Reports