A healthy baby was given the wrong gas at birth, and now the 6-1/2 week old boy lies comatose in Tripler Hospital. It's meant heartbreak for a family of five awaiting a new member. Dad is in the Army and was home from Afghanistan for the birth.
Dwight and Shalay Peterson wanted a fourth child. After seven years of trying and more than one in-vitro procedure, she became pregnant.
Baby Izzy was born healthy at Tripler Hospital on Jan. 14, but one minute into his life, a nurse placed a mask over the baby's face to administer oxygen. At least it was supposed to be oxygen. It turned out to be carbon dioxide.
"I watched him deteriorate from the screaming and crying to a little less screaming," Dwight said. "The second time she pulled it off, and then she put it back on, and then I watched him deteriorate until it was done, until he was finished. There was no more movement. There was no crying. There was nothing."
Forty-two minutes went by before it was realized that a mistake was being made. The petersons say tripler officials have apologized and said the mistake won't happen again.
"I wouldn't want anybody else to go through what we went through," Shalay said. "But it's too late for my baby."
Izzy needs help to breath and will need 24-hour nursing care his entire life.
The Petersons have hired a lawyer and a claim has been made with the federal government.
