New Born Twins Misdiagnosed – Airlifted & Treated for Deadly Illness

New Parents Are Distraught After Learning that Their New Born Twins Were Misdiagnosed As Having a Life threatening Illness and Unnecessarily Airlifted and Treated at Subsequent Children’s Hospital

Emerson Straw’s Client-presented to HCA Florida Trinity Hospital, in Trinity Florida, for the birth and delivery of their twin baby girls. The twin girls were born a few weeks prematurely and were followed in neonatal intensive care unit before being discharged. During the twins’ stay in Trinity hospital’s NICU, a lab test was performed on one of the twins to test whether the baby girl had an infection. Emerson Straw’s client-parents were alarmed and scared when they were told by the Trinity hospital’s staff that the affiliated provider’s lab had determined that one of the twin girls was suffering from Meningitis. Meningitis is a life-threatening infection of the cerebral spinal fluid that requires emergent treatment or severe injury, or death can occur.  Emerson Straw’s client-parents worked in the medical field and questioned whether the lab test was accurate, but the Trinity hospital staff was adamant that the test was interpreted correctly. Believing that one or both of their daughters could have a life-threatening illness, the parents consented to their newborn daughters being airlifted to a children’s hospital for emergency treatment including both babies undergoing aggressive intravenous antibiotic therapy and treatment. For days, these scared and distressed parents worried about their daughters’ survival. Shortly thereafter, a medical provider at the children’s hospital questioned whether the meningitis diagnosis was accurate and investigated. It was later determined that the test at the affiliated lab was interpreted incorrectly, and neither baby had meningitis. All the physical trauma to the babies and emotional trauma to the parents did not have to occur, and it only happened because of Trinity hospital’s negligence. This family was informed that this was not the first time that Trinity hospital’s affiliated lab had misinterpreted test results to the detriment of a patient.