Washington

Kristen Griffin
Olympia, WA

Kristen Griffin was 25 and getting ready for her upcoming wedding. Prior to her wedding, she was informed that she needed gall bladder surgery. The routine surgery was successful. While in the recovery room the nurse disregarded the doctor's instructions, and administered what constituted an overdose of Fentanyl, a powerful narcotic. The floor nurse, on duty during Kristen's recovery failed to properly monitor Kristen's condition or administer care. He did not even take her pulse one time, or check her vital signs. During this period Kristen lapsed into coma and died.

An investigation later revealed that the floor nurse wrote fabrications on Kristen's hospital chart, indicating that Kristen was alert and talking to her family as she left the recovery room.

The coroner's office had to amend the cause of death because they had not been initially told of the real circumstances surrounding her death. Following her death, the hospital changed at least two policies. First, all post-operative patients now wear a pulse oximeter on their finger to measure their oxygen levels. Second, the hospital has tightened screening of outside agencies. The hospital terminated the outside agency that supplied the floor nurse, who as it turned out, possessed a significant criminal record.

Ian Malone
Everett, WA

Christine Malone was excited about the upcoming birth of her son, Ian. Her physician prescribed a drug to induce labor, despite the fact that the drug's manufacturer warned against the possibility of serious brain damage to babies if used by pregnant women. The drug, Cytotec, is actually an ulcer medication used in some third world countries as an abortion pill. After prescribing such a dangerous drug, the midwives assisting in Ian's birth failed to notice that Ian was in trouble and were unable to find his heart beat. As a result of the drug and failure to notice the baby was having problems, Ian was born with severe brain damage.

Ian's brain damage left him unable to suck, swallow or gag properly. This made it difficult for him to breathe without having the secretions suctioned from his mouth by machine, and required him to eat by way of a tube in his abdomen. Among other things, he had seizures and was at a high risk of developing aspiration pneumonia. Ian died on May 4, 2004, before his fifth birthday. www.babyian.com

Daniel "Danny" O'Keefe
King County, WA

Danny O'Keefe, a professional musician, required surgery to correct symptoms from a mild inguinal hernia. The surgery required an incision in his groin area. The surgeon noted that the blood vessels in O'Keefe's groin were thick and distended. After the surgery, notwithstanding the tenderness of the recent incision, he was told that because there was no wheelchair available and he would have to walk. As he was leaving the hospital, the incision burst; the resulting massive loss of blood caused O'Keefe to lose consciousness. He was immediately given additional treatment which doctors believed corrected the damage.

However, when he continued to experience pain and swelling in his leg he was denied additional treatment. Eventually, an ultrasound identified thrombosis in the blood vessels of his groin. The failure to properly treat this thrombosis by his own physician and in the emergency room resulted in serious venous thromboses (DVT), which puts O'Keefe at high risk for potentially fatal pulmonary embolisms. Mr. O'Keefe's circulatory system was permanently damaged and he now has valvular incompetence - the valves in his circulatory system have failed. This means he can neither stand nor sit for extended periods.

Updated January 2005