From Globe.com:
As her 6-month-old lay dying in her arms, Becky Kekula struggled to make sense of how this could be. They were in the intensive care unit of Boston Children’s Hospital, a place known for saving lives. Yet for all its medical might, the institution could offer no more hope for her baby boy.
Weeks earlier, Becky and her husband, Ryan, had brought Jackson to the hospital for a car seat test and a sleep study, a fairly routine procedure for babies with certain conditions. The test was an important one for Jackson, who was born with the most common form of dwarfism, achondroplasia, which can complicate sleep issues.
Yet what started as a test to check their baby’s ability to sit safely in a car seat turned deadly after a devastating series of errors by Children’s staff left Jackson without oxygen for more than 20 minutes, according to an investigation by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. According to the Kekulas and their lawyer, he suffered a catastrophic brain injury that left him on life support.
This month, the couple received a $15 million settlement from the hospital, among the largest medical malpractice settlements ever reported in Massachusetts, according to the Kekulas’ attorney, Robert Higgins.
Higgins contends that staff at the hospital failed to properly monitor Jackson during the February 2022 test, focusing on what they thought was an equipment malfunction instead of checking Jackson’s breathing and heartbeat.
According to an investigation and documentation compiled by the Department of Public Health, the hospital suspended inpatient and outpatient sleep studies for approximately five weeks after the tragedy. It also implemented a number of corrective steps, including holding training and simulation exercises for technologists and having a nurse evaluate their skills, improving documentation of doctors’ orders for sleep studies, and assigning nurses to oversee patient care in such cases.
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