The family of a 10-year-old boy who died 40 minutes after Swedish Medical Center released him from the ER is filing suit against the hospital’s parent company and the two doctors who treated the child. According to one attorney, representing the boy’s family, the hospital, nurse, and physician who treated the boy are “one hundred percent responsible.”
According to the parents, the boy went into respiratory arrest and collapsed at Walgreens while his father filled a prescription from the ER – only 40 minutes after Swedish Medical discharged him. The lawsuit alleges the hospital discharged him prematurely after confirming he had influenza. An autopsy confirmed that he would have tested positive for tracheitis and pneumonia as well.
Even though the boy failed to respond to breathing treatments, the hospital failed to make further diagnosis and discharged him.
“Isaiah’s respiratory illness was very common in Colorado, and was very treatable,” said David Woodruff, another lawyer with the firm representing the boy’s family. According to Woodruff, the child’s pediatrician sent him to the ER because his breathing was labored and needed to be admitted to the hospital.
“Instead,” Mr. Woodruff explained, “the ER staff discharged him without any attempt at a proper diagnosis. This boy suffocated to death literally on the way home from the hospital because of the carelessness of Swedish hospital and its staff.”
After hearing about the boy’s death, a police officer from Littleton donated over $3,000 to the family for funeral expenses.
