Medication Mistake Kills Toddler at Hospital-Ran Care Facility

Medication Mistake Kills Toddler at Hospital-Ran Care Facility
Posted: May 30, 2010 08:59 PM
Updated: May 30, 2010 11:38 PM
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Medication Mistake Kills Toddler at Hospital-Ran Care Facility
2:57
Meghan Youker

OMAHA (KPTM) -- Children's Hospital & Medical Center believes human error led to the accidental death of a 19-month-old girl. Alicia Coleman had a seizure and went into cardiac arrest Saturday morning after medication was improperly routed into her system.

It happened at a respite care facility for children with complex medical needs that is run by the hospital.

"She was like the pure example of perseverance and attitude," said Alicia's mom, Dominique Coleman.

A toddler's room now sits quiet and empty. "I'm upset, but I'm so happy that I got 19 months with her, because through all the struggle, it was so worth it," Dominique said.

Born twelve weeks premature, Alicia battled a gastrointestinal disorder known as NEC, but had been improving. "I knew I had a fragile child, but she fought through 15 surgeries, and almost a year in the hospital, and infections and sickness and pneumonia and liver disease and everything and she's come back from it all," Dominique said.

Saturday morning on her way to work, Dominique dropped her daughter off at Children's Home Healthcare's World, near 78th and Farnam.

Though Alicia was primarily cared for by nurses in her home, she had been there a few times before. "She had a medical profile, she had a chart there," Dominique said.

An hour later, Dominique got a call from a staff member. "I think its complacency. I think its neglect," she said.

Dominique says a nurse mistakenly gave Alicia a drug, designed to slow the absorption of food, via a central line to her heart rather than through Alicia's feeding tube. "For something so stupid and so menial to take her when I put her in what were said to be the best hands, I feel like I let her down," Dominique said.

Dominique says she knows her daughter's death wasn't intentional, but for the sake of other kids and their families, she says she can't move on until she knows that protocol at the facility will always be followed. "I do know that someone has to take responsibility for this, and that something will change there so that this doesn't happen again," she said.

Recently, Alicia was doing so well, her mom says she was starting to try to walk and talk and a doctor decided just Tuesday her medications could be cut in half.

Attempts to resuscitate Alicia went on for more than an hour Saturday at both the child care facility and Children's Hospital. Dominique says doctors even called both poison control and the drug's manufacturer to try to help her daughter.

Children's Hospital isn't saying if the employee involved could face disciplinary action. Instead, the hospital released a statement. It reads:

A multidisciplinary team met Sunday morning at Children's Hospital & Medical Center and believes human error led to Saturday's accidental death of a 19-month-old child at Children's Home Healthcare's World, a respite care facility for children with complex medical needs operated by the hospital. Medication was improperly routed into the child's system causing a seizure. Attempts to resuscitate the child at Children's Home Healthcare's World and in the Children's Emergency Department were not successful.

Children's Hospital & Medical Center and Children's Home Healthcare's World share deepest condolences with the child's family. Words fail us at a time like this. Nothing can adequately express the sadness surrounding the loss of a child.

-- Children's Hospital & Medical Center

http://www.kptm.com/Global/story.asp?S=12568500