A 2-year-old boy died in a Florida hospital after a physician negligently deleted a decimal level in his prescription, ensuing within the underweight toddler receiving 10 instances the dosage of medication he ought to have, a lawsuit alleges.
De’Markus Web page “tragically overdosed with potassium” on March 3, 2024, inflicting him to endure a large mind damage and forcing him to spend the subsequent two weeks enduring “a horrific and protracted hospital course” on a ventilator earlier than lastly being taken off of life assist, in keeping with a lawsuit filed by his mom final week.
Mother Dominique Web page is suing College of Florida Well being and its Shands Instructing Hospital and Clinics, in addition to the medical workers she claims “fumbled” his therapy, together with taking 20 minutes to intubate him after he went into cardiac arrest, the Alachua County Circuit Court docket lawsuit alleges.
De’Markus — who “was suspected of getting some stage of autism” and was a choosy eater — first landed in AdventHealth Ocala Hospital on March 1, 2024 with a virus and dangerously low ranges of potassium, Legislation & Crime first reported, citing the go well with.
He was given intravenous fluids to assist together with his low electrolyte ranges and the subsequent morning transferred to Shands Instructing Hospital and Clinics in Gainsville, Fla. “as a way to obtain the upper stage of care he required,” the go well with claims.
Shands medical workers discovered De’Markus weighed simply 21 kilos — or the thirtieth percentile of weight for his demographic — and he nonetheless had low ranges of potassium, the court docket papers clarify.
So the boy was given “electrolyte alternative remedy,” however the subsequent day Dr. Jiabi Chen “unconscionably” ordered the boy be given “10 instances the extent ordered the day prior to this,” which had “been calculated primarily based on his dimension, weight, and that day’s lab outcomes,” the submitting alleges.
Chen “errantly” ordered the extraordinarily excessive dosage, “deleting a crucial decimal level within the prior day’s dosage of 1.5 mmol — now ordering the liquid complement to be given at 15 mmol twice a day,” the go well with claims.
This, on high of the 2 different types of potassium De’Markus was already receiving by way of IV and Pedialyte, the submitting prices.
Nobody else on the medical group, nor the pharmacists, caught the error “regardless of a Purple Flag warning within the hospital’s pharmacy system that alerted them to the extreme dosage,” the court docket paperwork declare.
So the toddler acquired two of the extreme dosages, the final being administered at 8:28 p.m. on March 3, 2024, the go well with alleges. And by 9:02 p.m., he went into cardiac arrest brought on by the overdose — or hyperkalemic cardiac arrest, the go well with alleges.
However the workers bungled their response and carried out “2 to three botched makes an attempt” to intubate De’Markus, the court docket paperwork declare. And “there was no less than twenty minutes that had handed because the Code [Blue] was known as, throughout which period he remained severely disadvantaged of the oxygen essential to maintain life,” the go well with alleges.
De’Markus’ coronary heart finally spontaneously come again, “however the anoxic injury already finished to his mind and different very important organs was catastrophic,” the go well with says.
When his blood was drawn they discovered elevated potassium and phosphate, the submitting claims.
De’Markus was stored alive for the subsequent two weeks whereas enduring seizures and battling “myriad of ICU-related issues,” earlier than he was taken off of life assist on March 18, 2024, the submitting prices.
Dominique — of Marion County, Fla. — is suing Shands and College of Florida for no less than $50,000 beneath wrongful dying claims and associated claims for the ache her son suffered and for her lack of “companionship of her minor youngster and for psychological ache and struggling,” she endured.
The Web page household lawyer, Jordan Dulcie, known as the hospital and its medical doctors’ actions “grossly negligent” and stated they “failed the fundamental requirements of medical care.”
“No guardian ought to must lose a toddler like this,” the lawyer continued. “What the household has endured is unimaginable and the worst half is that it was totally preventable.”
The lawyer stated he hopes to convey the case to trial to forestall one other household from having to undergo what Dominique went by way of.
The hospital declined to touch upon the case however stated: “UF Well being is dedicated to defending the privateness of all sufferers and their households and follows all state and federal HIPAA laws. We can not launch info on sufferers or potential sufferers and their therapy with out consent.”
Chen didn’t instantly return a request for remark Wednesday.
