Lawsuit filed againt St. Mary's Medical Center

A major healthcare corporation is now slapped with a lawsuit. This happened after a South Florida mother gave birth prematurely, while sitting on a portable toilet. Her daughter was born severely injured and brain damaged, and a hospital right in our area is to blame.

Little Traniya Guy was born September last year, at St. Mary's Medical center.

"It's some of the worst injuries that could ever be brought upon another human being," said lawyer, David Kelley.

According to Kelley, attorney for the baby's mother, it's because medical staff at the hospital were negligent. In August 2008, the baby's mother, Tasome Sampson, was admitted to the hospital at 22 weeks to be placed on bed rest. The lawsuit filed Thursday states that both Sampson and the baby were doing just fine. But 10 days later, that all changed.

"Unfortunately she was given Prostin, which is medication that is given to start labor and instead of being put on bed rest, just the total opposite was done," said Kelley.

Kelley says his client then started feeling intense cramps that lasted for hours. He alleges that the health care team eventually thought his client had to deficate, so they put her on a portable toilet. That's where she gave birth to baby Traniya.

In a statement from Tenet Healthcare Corporation, which owns St. Mary's, they admit a mistake was made - stating " Due to a medication error, the patient was given medication to speed up her labor instead of medication that attempts to stop premature labor. Ultimately, the baby was born and suffered brain damage."

Kelley says the hospital did many things wrong. Including no proper nursing care plan and an unclear physician's order. The suit alleges that a doctor wrote in an unclear and sloppy fashion and did not specify dosage or amount.

"The nurse has to understand what the order is and what it's used for and if they had done that job, they would've questioned the order,"said Kelley.

Tenet's statement goes on to say, "this was an unfortunate error that occurred despite the safeguards we have in place. .... We apologized to the family for this deeply regrettable error."

The baby is now at Joe DiMaggio's Children's Hospital in Broward County, dealing with a serious infection. But Kelley tells us that she has thrived and grown while being there.

So far, her care has cost $3.5 million. Kelley estimates that it will cost about $4 million to care for her, every year of her life.