Mom suing nurse after suffocation accident

[MunoRN]

This Mother Is Suing a Hospital for Millions After She Accidentally Killed Her Son

A mother in Oregon is suing Portland Adventist Medical Center for $8.6 million after she accidentally smothered her four-day-old baby in a hospital bed.

Monica Thompson says that, a few days after her son Jacob was born in August 2012, the hospital put her newborn in bed with her so she could breastfeed him. But Thompson says in the lawsuit that the baby was put there in the middle of the night, while she was heavily medicated. Thompson drifted off, and when she woke up, Jacob was unresponsive...

Thompson, who is suing both the hospital and the individual nurse involved in the incident, said she was still drowsy and groggy” from her medication when she realized her son was not moving, her lawsuit states. The suit says Thompson called for a nurse, and when none came, she carried her son to the hallway and frantically yelled for help.”

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

I don't work postpartum so I am fairly clueless about this area of nursing. Is it normal for a recently delivered Mom to be taking opioids and sleep aids concurrently? Not too surprising that an opioid naive patient would easily fall asleep when laying with the newborn under those circumstances. I can see Mom's point of view in filing a lawsuit if the lack of supervision while she with baby and under the influence of meds, one of which was designed specifically to make her sleep is an accepted practice in that facility.

Not knowing the entire story maybe the parents addressed their concerns with the hospital multiple times and in multiple ways without getting the acknowledgment that somebody may have dropped the ball there. Maybe they felt that filing a lawsuit was their last resort to bring the situation the attention it deserves to ensure that tragedy doesn't happen again.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Is it normal to still need atc opiates 3 days post op from a C section?

I don't know what "ATC" is, but yes, it's normal to still need narcotic pain relievers 3 days post-op from a C/S. Women are typically sent home with an Rx for an additional week's worth of narcotics. She just had open abdominal surgery, and not only that, she is doing something every 1-3 hours that is causing her uterus, which was just sliced open, to painfully contract. And women, in spite of just having had major surgery, are still expected to tend their child(ren), get up several times a day to pick up their baby, change diapers, make a bottle if not breastfeeding, etc.

I can't think of any other type of major surgery where the patient is expected to pretty much just go back to their normal active lives 3 days later.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Don't cases often take years to be built and officially filed as lawsuits?

The article said that she did not decide to sue until after an attorney reviewed her case in August 2017. So it sounds like it was just a matter of a week or two between officially deciding to sue and filing the lawsuit.

I'm not going to fault the woman or question why it took her 5 years to sue. I can't imagine anything more tragic and painful than losing your child, and knowing that it was due to your actions.

I don't know how I feel about the whole thing. It was a horrible, tragic event. And I think that it will spur policy changes in hospitals nationwide. I just don't know that these changes will end up being for the better.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Makawake - your post was really long with lots of questions, so I'm not going to quote it, but I will try to answer your questions.

I am only speaking to my facility, but we give Ibuprofen q6h as an ordered, scheduled medication to all postpartum women. Post C/S women are also ordered Percocet 1-2 tabs PRN q4h. Some women don't take it, most do. For post-lady partsl deliveries, we don't typically have ordered narcotics, but if she's a grand multip, the uterine involution can be INCREDIBLY painful, so sometimes we do. The providers will take that on a case by case basis.

I see a sleep aid prescribed VERY rarely, but I have seen it on occasion. Typically we will try Benadryl before going for the big guns. I agree with another poster who posted after you, who said that s/he suspected that it was the Ambien that was the biggest culprit in this case. The narcotics and Ambien were given 4 hours before the death occurred - most of the narcotics would have been out of her system by that time, but the Ambien would have still been on board. I think this tragedy may not have happened if it weren't for the Ambien. But we'll never know, I guess.

Regarding opiates and breastfeeding - in the first several days postpartum, total milk volume is extremely small, therefore, the absolute amount of opiate that the infant is getting truly is negligible. In general, other than the possibility of some sleepiness in the infant, there have been no effects in the infant from short-term opiate use. Longterm use should be avoided when breastfeeding. The best source for lactation and drug safety is Hale and InfantRisk.

[Emergent, RN]

I don't think the point is whether the woman should or shouldn't have had an Ambien. I personally never took anything for childbirth or afterwards and put up with the pain. But let's face it it's a stressful transition And a lot of women do want pain medicine.

In that case, the policy should be that will be a support person to mind the baby, and that the woman not take the baby in bed with her while she's alone in the room. That sounds like common sense and not overreaching regulation. After childbirth is a vulnerable time for both baby and mom and mothers need help and support.

Rooming in is a great thing but that doesn't mean that it should let healthcare workers off the hook. The rules should be spelled out to the patient and her family, just like the hospital won't release the pair unless there is a properly installed car seat.

[RNrhythm, BSN, RN]

...glad that I live and work in a country where healthcare professionals aren't sued.

Here in the USA, everything we do is colored by fear of litigation: The words we use, our procedures, and especially our documentation.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I don't think the point is whether the woman should or shouldn't have had an Ambien. I personally never took anything for childbirth or afterwards and put up with the pain. But let's face it it's a stressful transition And a lot of women do want pain medicine.

In that case, the policy should be that will be a support person to mind the baby, and that the woman not take the baby in bed with her while she's alone in the room. That sounds like common sense and not overreaching regulation. After childbirth is a vulnerable time for both baby and mom and mothers need help and support.

Rooming in is a great thing but that doesn't mean that it should let healthcare workers off the hook. The rules should be spelled out to the patient and her family, just like the hospital won't release the pair unless there is a properly installed car seat.

First, Ambien is not a pain medication. Yes, I *do* think it's relevant that she was given Ambien, on top of regular narcotic medication. It's not a regular occurrence.

We discourage cosleeping. Strongly. However, it's entirely reasonable for a woman to breastfeed her baby while sitting up in bed. I think at 4am, it's a hardship to expect the woman, who has just had major abdominal surgery, to get up out of bed and move to a chair in order to breastfeed. So it's not at all unusual for a nurse to bring the baby into the mom's room, help her sit up in bed, and then hand the baby to her while she's in bed in order to breastfeed.

Many women do not have the luxury of having a partner/spouse with her 24/7, either in the hospital or at home. Is it reasonable to say that we cannot leave a mother alone with her newborn?

[Apple-Core, ASN, BSN, RN]

I understand that financial penalty (for the hospital) hits where it hurts, which is why people sue. And I also understand the parents wish to hold the hospital/nurse accountable. However, I often wonder how people awarded these enormous monetary payouts can spend that money and live in relative luxury, all the while knowing what got them to that place.

Maybe I'm being cynical, but I cannot imagine losing a child (or any loved one) and then feel comfortable purchasing new cars, homes, and the like on the windfall. Every penny would remind me of how I had gotten that money, and would be abhorrent to me.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

didn't need money until now.

Really, man, what a terrible thing to say. You know nothing about her money situation, you apparently have never lost a child. What would you do - thank the nurse?

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

Losing a child is such an unimaginable tragedy and my heart goes out to any parent who has had to experience such a devastating loss.

I can definitely understand suing if you want to have someone accept responsibility/accountability and to acknowledge wrongdoing (if it took place) and I can also understand wanting to be compensated for the of cost bereavement counselling, loss of wages due to being unable to work during a period of time and for other necessary care/support that follows in the wake of such a tragedy. However seeing that someone is suing for almost double-digit millions (which is an insane amount of money) makes me glad that I live and work in a country where healthcare professionals aren't sued. Here, a patient can definitely report licensed healthcare professionals to the licensing and oversight authority but you can't sue or be sued for zillions.

I can't help it, when I hear of cases similar to this one, the large amount of money makes it seem slightly mercenary to me. You can't assign a dollar value to a human life and attempting to do so in fact has the opposite effect on me. To me, it devalues life when it's viewed in terms of a windfall.

What makes it even more unappealing to me is that if I understand this correctly, a rather large percentage of a potential settlement goes to the lawyers? If I got that part right, it serves as a powerful incentive to file even more big $ law suits (compared to if the legal team were paid a more modest fixed fee).

On a societal scale, the prevalence of law suits in the healthcare industry is bound to ultimately increase the cost of healthcare. I think it's quite unfortunate. Frankly, I think it's a sick system.

If she wins, the losers will appeal. Whatever she is awarded will be knocked down significantly on appeal.

If a surgeon cuts off the wrong leg and then must also remove the good one, when nurses or other staff are negligent, what happens to their victims in your country? How will the now bilateral amputee get the care and equipment he needs? Do you folks not acknowledge pain and suffering or diminished quality of life? Not criticizing, just asking. Thanks.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

I'm wondering why it took her five years to file the suit.

It might not have. Maybe she filed some time ago and we're just now hearing about it. Seems the statutes of limitations to file would have been only 1 - 3 years in US. Don't know for sure.

I feel so badly for all involved.

[LovingLife123]

That was my first thought as well. Mom kills baby, later blames nurse and sues because she needs cash. People are terrible like that.

Also, why are postpartum moms getting narcotics around the clock??? I get that labor is painful, but can people not tolerate pain anymore or something? Give mom some tylenol and a heating pad.

Have you had a kid? It's downright painful. Especially after a csection.