There is a terrible case of malpractice in Findlay, Ohio. Tressel Meinardi, 7 months, son of Emilie and Scott Meinardi, had open heart surgery but the staff at Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital mistakingly used alcohol rather than saline to flushed his system — killing the baby.
It is an obvious case of malpractice. Articles appear to blame a technician as opposed to the doctors who flushed the heart with the wrong liquid. Ultimately it does not matter for the hospital which has liability under the doctrine of respondeat superior.
Source: MSNBC
Simply tragic.
OMG…..
Having intimate experience with this procedure, open heart surgery to correct a heart defect in an infant, this is the worst possible outcome … a nightmare become reality. For anyone reading this thread … if you are presently facing the situation of an infant requiring open heart surgery please give serious consideration to the Pediatric Cardiac Unit at the Cleveland Clinic for not only are the skills of the surgeons and cardiologists important, as we can see from this article, the staff within the Cardiac Unit is just as important.
This article literally breaks my heart.
Children’s Mercy in Kansas City has a very good reputation as well, Blouise.
Horrible. Usually to “flush” someone with saline you hook them up to an intravenous and program the machine to force fluids. They must use a different procedure with babies because I have never seen an intravenous bag filled with alchohol.
Our firm defended Northwestern Hospital in Chicago when they accidentally killed a woman by overdosing her with Vitamin A, which is toxic. Tragic.
Anyone in the Virginia area facing this problem (infant needing open heart surgery)I have the name of an excellent surgeon who is building a superb Pediatric Cardiac Unit at a Virginia hospital. I would take my child around the world to get this man’s skill and care.
Good God
I used to work at CintGenHospital and this is unbelievable. There are some large machines that require cleaning and then flushing and then priming with correct solutions. This is the kind of accident that tends to happen when staffing is not stable or adequate, when training is lax, when pressure on staff is not healthy. My first reaction is that this is a sign of the times and Corporatism. It is a horror. God bless this family ………
Augmenting Blouise,
Not a mile up the street from the Cleveland Clinic is Case Western Reserve University Hospital’s Rainbow Baby and Childrens hospital, a leader for decades in expert care for kids. I’d trust either facility to provide top care.
On campus you’ll also find the excellent Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Institutes of Music and of Art, a fascinating Museum of Natural History and a new Botanical Garden. Quite a neighborhood!
mr.ed,
… and a hop, skip to “Little Italy” (Murray Hill) area for great food ..
On a serious note … one in ten babies are born with serious heart defects (it has to do with the way the heart develops within the fetus starting at five weeks). Incredible advances have been made in this area in the last 30 years and almost all of these children who 30 years ago would have died within a matter of days or weeks, are now able to live full and healthy lives after surgery.
That is why what happened to this baby is just tragic.
What a nightmare! RIP little one.
W C
I think you’ve hit on the problem. I was in the hospital recently (for the first time in 55 years), and was appalled to find the nursing staff worked 12 hour shifts and the non-nursing staff worked 18 hour shifts.
It is ridiculous to expect proper care by shift’s end for intense highly-skilled jobs like this with such a burden.
This poor child’s death was probably the result of just such extended work schedules.
What a sad story. I really feel for the parents of this poor child. That is one case that should be settled as soon as possible. I can’t imagine what a jury would do with this case! Wow!
Is anyone else having posting difficulties today?
No words. Just tears for this family.
“45,000 citizens die every year because they don’t have health insurance.”
Steffie Woolhandler, MD, Harvard study, 2009, in support of Health Care Reform
“Approximately 180,000 Americans die every year due to medical treatment injuries.”
Lucien Leape, MD, an earlier Harvard study, 1995, in support of sanity
Are you beginning to see the dimensions of our subject?
How do Americans usually die each year – other than Illness?
Shark Attacks – 2
Big Mean Soft Drink Machines 3
Nasty Snake Bites – 12
Killer Ham Sandwiches – 35
Bee Stings (including wasps & hornets) – 40
Snow Sports & Snow Balls – 72
Lightening Strikes – 90
Airplanes vs Gravity – 120
Bicycle Crashes (including collisions with autos) – 900
Gunshots (not including suicide) – 12,000
Traffic Collisions – 38,000
While being treated as a patient & expecting to recover – 180,000
So . . . here’s our uncomplicated question: If 500 Americans are dying every day while being cared for; if ‘disease care’ is our biggest killer, when exactly did we wake up in the Twilight Zone?
see the Medical Maniacs website for more eye-popping facts.
here’s a site for MD background checks,
http://www.docboard.org/aim/
I’d like to know if there’a good one on Attorneys
there’s
My daughter is around that age. This is why I don’t read the news anymore. Heartbreaking.
my baby is 8 days old and weighes 4.15 pounds at around 6 pounds will recieve open heart surgery at children’s hospital in kc i heard great things about the nicu care there !! they all r so nice and very caring for each baby i highly recommend this hospital for any child !!
There should never be a mistake made like that, This is a little human being who was trying to survive,, they should have checked everything over several times,, how could alcohol and been so close to the saline solution,, they can not replace this babies life,, not excusable,, I’m so sorry to the family..