Photo: Stephanie McFarlane and David McFarlane, parents of deceased
by Marco Lopez
COROZAL TOWN, Mon. Apr. 17, 2023
The parents of baby Anita McFarlane have gotten in contact with the media to tell the story of the child’s final hours, and to call for justice. They describe the sequence of events on Wednesday evening at the Corozal Community Hospital that led to her death as a sort of medical malpractice, although not using that term explicitly. Stephanie McFarlane and David McFarlane were the parents of 6-month-old baby Anita. They took her to the hospital after she developed a cough on Tuesday. According to the father, the hospital was not able to attend to the child in the morning when they arrived. They were told to return later that day, and did so at about 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
According to the child’s mother, Stephanie McFarlane, when they checked her baby’s vital signs, all was deemed normal, and she had even gained two pounds since the last doctor’s visit. Some disturbance was noticed in the baby’s airways, and two rounds of nebulizer treatment were prescribed for the child. According to the parents, the manner in which the treatment was administered to the child may have led to her untimely passing.
They claim that the two doses of the nebulizer treatment were not given with the appropriate 15- to 20-minute intervals. But more egregious is what the mother, Stephanie, claims took place during the administering of the second treatment, when, according to her, instead of a mixture of saline and the commonly used nebulizer medicine Ipratropium, a direct dose of the latter was administered to the child instead.
Dr. Angela Gilharry from the Corozal Community Hospital said in an interview, however, that this is not the case, and that they may have misunderstood the explanation she gave to them. She asserted that the standard mixture of two drops of Ipratropium and the remaining portion of a saline solution was used in both nebulizer treatments.
Shortly after the second treatment, however, the baby became unresponsive, and the parents thought that the child was sleeping. They claim that this is when the doctor came out to check the baby’s heart. Dr. Gilharry in her interview said that the medical personnel noticed that the baby was unresponsive and went over to check the child before taking her back inside. They began resuscitation shortly after, but the family claimed one doctor referred to only as “Dr. Samos” said that the baby was “dead long time.”
According to Dr. Gilharry, the child was born with various congenital problems and had underlying conditions that ultimately led to her death. She noted that hospital personnel were familiar with the baby, since she has been a sickly child since birth. The child suffered from a condition that prevented her from getting rid of phlegm in the lungs, according to Dr. Gilharry. The parent shared that the baby, at 1 month 5 days, was diagnosed with gall bladder stones, and needed surgery for their removal.
Dr. Gilharry, in her interview with CTV3, said, “We have explained to them the details of what were the underlying conditions of the baby, what was the ultimate cause of death for that baby, and what would have been the possible outcomes, regardless of whether that nebulization was given or not.”
While the parents believe that the negligence of the nurses to give the child two doses of nebulizer treatment consecutively instead of with the requested 15-minute break led to the baby’s death, after an autopsy, it is was determined that the cause of death was acute respiratory failure caused by bilateral pneumonia.
“All I want is justice for my daughter, and for parents to know and be alert, that when they have babies like that and they are very young, I just want them to know, be careful, and try to keep focused and see what the doctors are doing to the babies,” Stephanie McFarlane, mother of the late baby Anita, expressed.