Instead of being discharged from the hospital as planned, a mother witnessed a horrible incident that caused her 3-month-old baby to remain hospitalized longer than planned.
After a hospital stay last year, a mother was informed that she could take her baby home. But shortly before she planned on leaving the hospital with her daughter, a nurse made a mistake and accidentally severed the baby’s pinky finger. The mother is now filing a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital and nurse claiming that the parties’ negligence has caused her baby to suffer permanent injuries that could have been prevented. The mother said she is still furious about the incident, and she wonders how she will explain the incident to her daughter when she grows older.
The accident happened immediately before discharge when a nurse was attempting to remove a plastic intravenous tube from the baby’s hand. Instead of removing the tube, the nurse mistakenly cut off the child’s left pinky finger. The finger fell on the floor, and the baby began to wail in pain from the incident. The baby’s mother reported that the nurse threw the scissors to the floor and ran out of the room in distress. Doctors reportedly attempted to reattach the finger, but the nerves and blood vessels were too small to perform reconstructive surgery.
The mother is suing the hospital and nurse for negligence, arguing that the nurse was not properly trained to use scissors when removing the IV tube. Furthermore, the nurse was not adequately supervised, which also contributed to the tragedy. The mother is seeking more than $15,000 in damages. Lawyers for the mother say that the hospital failed to reach negotiations in an earlier claim and that is why the mother is now pursuing a lawsuit in order to hold the nurse and hospital accountable for their mistake.
Source: Orlando Sentinel, “Polk mom’s lawsuit: Nurse cut off baby’s pinky,” Ray Reyes, March 27, 2012