$1.15 million settlement; Infant dies after signs, symptoms of sepsis missed

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Action: Settlement

Date: May 14, 2024

Nature of claim: Medical malpractice

Injuries alleged: Sepsis leading to death of infant and mother’s negligent infliction of emotional distress

Amount: $1.15 million

Case name: Withheld

Case no: Withheld

Court: Withheld

Tried before: Mediator

Mediator: Withheld

Most helpful expert(s): Santa Bartholomew, M.D., Reidsville, North Carolina, pediatric critical care

Attorneys: Lauren Slocum of Elliott Phelan Kunz & Slocum, Georgetown, and Carl Grant of Law Office of Carl B. Grant, Orangeburg (for the plaintiff)

Decedent, a 7-month-old infant living with her parents in Blackville, was taken May 31, 2020, to the Regional Medical Center Bamberg Barnwell’s Emergency Medical Center, where she was seen by a pediatrician and a nurse. Her mother reported decedent had persistent fever, grunting and irritability at home for several days. The doctor and nurse noted an abnormally high pulse rate of 190, and that she was grunting when examined. Neither took a rectal temperature to check for a fever, as is standard for an infant. X-rays were taken to rule out trauma injuries, but she was not examined for an infectious process before being discharged home.

Early the next day, decedent was taken to a pediatrician’s office in Barnwell County. Despite that she appeared to be very ill and was hemodynamically unstable, the family was told to take her by private vehicle to Prisma Health Children’s Hospital — Midlands in Columbia. Her mother had to hold decedent in her arms for more than an hour, giving rise to the needless infliction of emotional distress claim, as decedent’s father drove. Decedent was admitted but died of sepsis early on June 2, 2020.