Real-time monitoring would have saved a mother's child.
Leah, an 11-year-old, went into a hospital as a healthy girl. She was scheduled to have elective surgery, which required the opening of her chest. Leah received an epidural anesthesia to monitor the pain.
Despite being on pain medication, Leah complained of intense pain and started to become less alert of what was going on around her after the surgery. The medical staff seemed disinterested in the concern and stress that Leah's mother was going through. They didn't examine Leah, and she wasn't hooked up to a monitor.
The night that Leah was staying in the hospital, she was found dead by her mother around 3 in the morning.
It was discovered that the epidural that the child received was wrongly placed, and instead was inserted into her left lung.
It has been 10 years since Leah died. Leah's mother wants to "make sure no other mother has to live with the pain I endure, when the solution is within reach and so easy to implement."
Leah's mother, Lenore, is an active member of Mothers Against Medical Errors.
Be sure to check out Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS), which is an advocacy group devoted to improving patient health and safety. PPAHS is composed of physicians, patients, individuals, and organizations.
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