Canadian mother Kelsey Bond remembers the exact moment the hospital phoned her to let her know that her baby boy Keiran – one of two twins born prematurely – had been dropped on his head during the night.
“I was more or less in shock, so I didn’t really say anything,” the 19-year-old mother told The Intelligencer.
“I received a phone call at eight o’clock in the morning saying that the nurse had fallen asleep feeding him and woke up to him crying on the floor,” she said.
Keiran and his twin, Kayden, were born more than two months premature on December 12. Kayden was released from hospital on February 10, but Keiran was suffering a lung condition and other health problems, and remained in hospital.
Kelsey was feeding Kayden when she received the phone call.
"[The department's manager] said she was sorry...and that a paediatrician had looked at him and said he was fine."
When the hospital gave Kelsey the report into Keiran's accident, she discovered the fall had occurred around 3 a.m.
"They didn't call me for five hours. You're supposed to be notified right away," she said.
The report said the nurse in question was holding Keiran on her lap when "next thing, she noted baby on floor".
"Baby possibly slid down from her lap but mechanism of fall is unclear; Keiran cried, no documented loss of consciousness...Assessed by the paediatrician on call after the fall and no abnormalities were noted," the report said.
Kelsey asked the hospital to do a head ultrasound on Keiran after she was alerted to the incident. A second paediatrician assured her that her baby was alright when she arrived to see him that evening.
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But Kelsey had "a gut feeling that everything wasn't OK."
"We've already almost lost him once," she said.
After another ultrasound and a CT scan, it was finally revealed that Keiran's skull had a depressed fracture and an acute subdural hematoma.
Kelsey said she was told by medical professionals that it could take up to "six months to a year" for Keiran's injury to heal properly.
She's concerned about the long term effects of his accident, and admits that although "he seems to be doing better", he remains more of a "high-needs" baby than his twin.
Kelsey is now looking into her legal options, telling The Intelligencer she wants a "lawsuit for neglect".
The hospital has issued her with an apology, but Kelsey said it "doesn't fix what happened."
"This is my child's life. When I think about it, my heart's basically in my stomach," she said.
"The nurse is not suspended; she has not been fired; there is no punishment for her. If she was tired she shouldn't have gone to work. She's risking children's lives, and these aren't just normal, full-term babies. They need special care."
Top Comments
It is not ours to judge why it happened, it happened. The parents of this child have a right of redress. The lack of following protocols shows a lack of training of staff. The hospital should be fined. The nurses and doctors retrained and then put through the rigours of a coaching program. The parents should be given unfettered support for the needs of the baby from medical to education.
It's rather important to judge WHY it happened...or it could easily happen again.
Sounds like the hospital enacted full disclosure, merely within business hours - which is actually likely to be exactly the protocol staff are meant to follow. No amount of "training programs" would have prevented this. You can't coach people against physical fatigue.
Ha. Spoken like someone who's never worked a night shift in their life. I get that she's upset about the baby, but the line "if she was tired she shouldn't have gone to work" is just clueless. If all shift workers opted to stay home when they felt tired, the world would grind to a halt overnight. It's interesting that the public only get angry about the negative effects of shift work when it directly affects them. I bet the woman in this article doesn't give a crap about the increased risk of accidents and disease that shift workers face as a direct result of the hours they work.
It's not the woman in the article's problem. End of the day, the hospital and the nurse are liable.
So, if a nurse dropped your baby on it's head and it had ongoing complications, you wouldn't be angry?
No I'm sure the woman in the article is only thinking about her baby who has a depressed fracture of the skull as he was dropped ON THE HEAD by a nurse who was in charge of caring for him!
No one is saying shift workers don't have a tough job (my husband is one) but you are still responsible and liable for things that happen!
When I did Mid, I had to do night duty. There is no excuse for a nurse/midwife to drop a baby and if the staff member is unable to cope with shift work, they need to find another career. The mother has every right to sue.
OMG a little vulnerable baby was dropped on it's head resulting in a cracked skull. You think the mother should just suck it up? Seriously?