Attorneys Doug Olcott and Dorothy Dohanics from Dallas W. Hartman, P.C. have filed a medical malpractice case alleging that a Fayette County family lost their two-month-old son due to negligence.
The details of the case, which can also be found by clicking here to a link in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, are tragic and sad. And after months of investigations, the family is suing Uniontown Hospital, the Uniontown emergency room physician, Magee-Women's Hospital of UPMC, Institute for Transfusion Medicine, and the Central Blood Bank of Pittsburgh. The infant's parents, along with Dallas W. Hartman, P.C., have put together a 78-page long complaint that lists Magee Women's Hospital, UPMC Emergency Medicine, Uniontown Hospital, and Dr. Febenido Pascua as the defendants.
The parents have filed their suit as individuals and as administrators of their son's estate. He was born prematurely and died in 2012. The parents and their lawyers are looking for compensation for punitive and compensatory damages and have filed a 23-count suit that alleges the parties involved are guilty of medical malpractice, gross negligence, and wrongful death.
According to the complaint, Dr. Febenido Pascua, the emergency room doctor working in the Uniontown Hospital Emergency Department, did not provide proper care to the expectant mother on two separate visits to the emergency room over the course of four days. During the first emergency room visit, at which time she was complaining of vommiting, nausea, lightheadedness, and chest heaviness; her blood pressure was recorded at 206/146. She was discharged from the E/R without the proper treatment for her high blood pressure. She returned to the emergency room four days later complaining of shortness of breath. Her blood pressure during that visit was recorded as 190/126. Both readings were considered, under the Amerian Heart Association, as evidencing a patient in "hypertensive crisis" which required emergent medical treatment. After being released from the emergency room, for the second time, her OB/GYN physician directed her to immediately return to Uniontown Hospital where she was admitted to the Labor and Delivery Department.
The expectant mother was transferred to Magee-Woman's Hospital of UPMC. The baby was born early at at a gestational age of twenty weeks and four days. He was immediately sent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). During his stay in the NICU, the baby received a blood transfusion that was tainted with Cytomegalovirus. Cytomegalovirus is a fairy common virus that is generally harmless to kids and adults, but it can cause complications in premature infants. Due to the Cytomegalovirus, the baby's medical condition deteriorated ultimately causing and/or contributing to his death.
Attorneys Doug Olcott and Dorothy Dohanics found that the blood used in the transfusion came from the Central Blood Bank of Pittsburgh and the Institute for Transfusion Medicine, Magee's primary blood bank, and are asserting that it was not accurately screened, tested, or treated for Cytomegalovirus before it was used on him.