Newborn dies after staff accused of 'breaking baby’s neck' as parents sue
Parents are suing an Orlando hospital after they claim the medical staff caused their newborn to die of a broken neck.
The Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies is tangled in a lawsuit after allegations arose that employees broke a newborn’s neck and tried to hide the injury.
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday, October 17, which listed the incident as happening in June 2022.
The mother of the baby girl, Gianna Lopera, gave birth to her child at 24 weeks gestation.
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The premature baby, named Jahxy Peets, was delivered through a STAT C-section and was immediately intubated and admitted to the NICU department for life support.
It was claimed by hospital court documents that there was no evidence at that time of a birth-related traumatic injury.
But two weeks later, something about the little baby would raise flags.
It was when the neurosurgery department was brought in due to ‘concern for abnormal tone of her upper extremities’, that ‘an MRI of the cervical spine was performed, which showed cord signal abnormality, enlargement and presumed hemorrhage involving portions of the cervical and thoracic cord’.
The lawsuit added: “To put it simply, Jahxy Peet’s neck had been broken.”
The lawsuit also claims that this type of injury could not have happened without excessive force, although there was no mention of this in her documentation within her medical records.
The lawsuit also claims that there was nothing in Jahxy’s medical records which spoke of an investigation to ‘identify and bring to justice’ the person or people responsible for the injury, which led to her death.
It reads: “This traumatic event was either not recognized or was not reported, and it appears from the records that an attempt to cover up the cause of Jahxy’s injury was made, as there is no mention of a precipitating event in the medical record.”
Due to the injury to Jahxy’s neck, she was paralyzed and could not breathe on her own.
The lawsuit details that she died in November 2022 after 165 days at the hospital.
Her parents are now accusing the hospital of malpractice, which led to Jahxy’s death.
The couple's attorney Nicole Kruegel told McClatchy News: “She wasn’t able to breathe on her own, her organs started shutting down… it was just a very slow death.”
“As far as the parents know, this person who did this could have done it intentionally, or if they did it accidentally, they did it because they don’t know what they’re doing, and they’re still in that NICU handling babies as far as we know,” Kruegel added.
The document states: “Her survivors, Gianna Lopera and Jahmiah Peets, have suffered mental pain and suffering which will continue for the rest of their lives.
“They have incurred medical and funeral expense and have suffered the loss of Jahxy Peets’ love and companionship.”
They claim that they were not informed in a ‘timely’ manner by the hospital about her injury being ‘caused by trauma’ or that ‘their daughter had suffered a debilitating injury that could have been prevented with due care’.
The parents also allege that the staff did not ‘protect’ their newborn from injury, and that as a result of the ‘acts or omissions’ from the hospital meant that Jahxy ‘wrongfully died’.
Gianna's partner Jahmair Peets noted that a bruise was detected on their daughter's spine and told the Daily Mail: “They don't know why she presented this and unfortunately she can't move her hands. The hospital also said her neck was swollen and the back of her head all of a sudden.”
UNILAD reached out to the Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies for comment.
Britt Jones