Wrongful Death Suit Claims That Negligent Hospital Caused Two-Year-Old’s Death

A grieving family has filed a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit against a Georgia hospital, claiming that the hospital’s negligent care caused their daughter’s death. According to the lawsuit, the two-year-old decedent died in October 2024 during a visit to Piedmont Eastside Medical Center. The lawsuit claims that the girl “died needlessly because of substandard care.”

In court documents, the parents say that they took their daughter to the hospital after realizing that she was having an allergic reaction to fire ant bites. Once they arrived at the facility, the family claims it took hospital staff “over 20 minutes” to administer epinephrine, the life-saving medication used to treat allergic reactions.

In addition to taking too long to administer the epinephrine, the suit further claims that the ER physician on duty attempted to intubate the decedent, but once she began the procedure, the doctor realized the ER did not have the correctly sized equipment for a young child. The hospital, therefore, “lacked the equipment needed to complete the pediatric intubation.” According to the complaint, the decedent’s parents “looked on helplessly as their daughter slowly died from lack of oxygen.”

The family’s lawyer released a statement saying, “What happened to [the decedent] is every parent’s worst nightmare. There was a critical window to treat her allergic reaction, yet the ER team failed to act. Even worse, when the ER doctor…tried to intubate [the decedent], the team realized they didn’t have the right-sized equipment for a child. Her parents watched in horror as nurses scrambled to find a pediatric breathing tube while [the decedent] was losing oxygen. She died in front of them, something no family should ever endure.”

This is the third case they’ve brought against the ER doctor who treated the decedent, and the second involving, what the complaints claim, were “preventable deaths due to a failed intubation.”

Elements of medical negligence 

Medical negligence is significantly different from ordinary negligence. To prove medical negligence, a plaintiff has to establish that the doctor failed to render the prevailing standard of care for the profession. In the case mentioned above, it sounds as if the hospital staff waited too long to administer epinephrine and then failed to intubate the decedent because they did not have pediatric intubation tubes that would fit in her smaller mouth. Ultimately, the hospital is responsible for ensuring its patients get the prevailing standard of care for the medical profession. In the case of the decedent, the hospital failed to render that standard of care.

Talk to a Jacksonville, FL Personal Injury Lawyer Today 

Gillette Law represents the interests of plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits filed against negligent defendants. Call our Jacksonville personal injury lawyers today to schedule an appointment, and we can begin investigating your case right away.

Source:

people.com/girl-2-was-bitten-by-fire-ants-parents-filed-a-wrongful-death-suit-against-hospital-11713090