国产福利 真实

A Connecticut court has awarded $32 million to the estate of a child born prematurely who died three months later after being given a cow-based nutrition fortifier by Yale New Haven Hospital without the parents’ or any consent.

The decision to fortify the premature child’s diet with a bovine-based product instead of the mother’s own or other human-based product went against not only the wishes of the parents but also against a policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) that the hospital itself referenced in its treatment plan, Judge Karen Goodrow of the Superior Court in New Haven found.

The judge said she found the testimony of the parents and their witnesses generally more credible than those of the hospital in concluding that the hospital failed to obtain any consent and failed to obtain informed consent regarding the use of bovine-based products. She found that the plaintiff, the estate of Aries Reign-Peterson, suffered non-economic damages of $30,000,000 and economic damages of $1,962,884. The court said its award of non-economic damages reflects the court’s assessment of “fair, just and reasonable damages for Aries’ pain, suffering and loss of the enjoyment of life, and of the death of Aries.”

The AAP statement warned that infants receiving bovine-based products face a higher risk of developing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which was the cause of the baby’s death.

The court found that the neonatal unit medical team did not discuss with the parents the risks and benefits of the use of bovine-based products. Also, the risk of Aries developing NEC from the use of bovine-based products was never discussed with the parents. Although Aries’ parents wanted only his mother’s own milk to be fed to Aries, the doctors did not opt to increase Aries’ in-take of mother’s own milk or pursue another alternative.

The hospital’s defense included the claim that the AAP changed its opinion since the advisory it relied upon in treating the infant. The hospital did lot and does not stock human-based fortifiers, such as Prolacta, even though they are appropriate for infants such as Aries and are readily available because the doctors did not believe there existed compelling evidence that outcomes were better with human milk based products.

If the defendants had advised the parents that the use of bovine-based fortifier and formula was necessary in order for Aries to grow, the parents said they would not have agreed to the use of bovine-based products and would have asked for other options. One other option would have been for the defendants to use Prolacta, a human-based fortifier, including , if necessary, transferring Aries to a hospital that carried Prolacta.

Aries was born prematurely on January 30, 2018, with an extremely low birth rate, about half the size for his gestational age. His gestational age was 27 weeks and four days. He weighed about 1.3 pounds. He died on April 18, 2018.