Personal Injury Law

Baby Dies After Alcohol Injected Into His Heart

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

A heartbreaking story about a medical error that took the life of a 7-month old baby is being reported at KTLA News.

Tressel was the only child for Emilie and Scott Meinardi. Since birth, Tressel had heart issues; however, they knew that with surgery, the issues could be corrected. Last week the scheduled surgery date finally arrived, and the family headed to Cincinnati?s Children?s Hospital for the operation.

Tragically, Tressel would not make it out of the facility.

In the middle of the procedure, a technician made a terrible medical mistake. During the open-heart surgery, instead of flushing the baby?s system with saline, the medical staff member used alcohol. Of course, sending alcohol into the fragile baby?s body instead of the sterile saline solution had devastating effects on the child, eventually leading to Tressel?s death.

The medical error is similar to the one we reported on last week involving the baby who was accidentally given morphine. In addition we wrote recently about the problem with hospital tube manufacturing that makes these types of mistakes all too common. Hospitals, doctors, and manufacturers of these devices need to take a close look at these errors, understand exactly how to prevent them in the future, and ensure that no other patient falls victim.

Words cannot describe the devastation that family and friends suffer upon learning that a medical mistake took the life of their loved one?the pain is only compounded when an innocent child is lost. Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti have worked with families involved in these tragedies for decades. We offer sincere condolences to all those sufferings from this hospital mistake.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on August 30, 2010 (boomark / email).