Omaha, US– 1st September, 2019: The parents of a 3-year-old boy allege 'alarm fatigue' led to a sequence of events that left their child with permanent brain damage. They are suing Omaha's Children's Hospital and Medical Center, alleging malpractice.
The hospital says the family's claims are 'without merit.'
"I've never heard my own son say, 'dad.' I don't hear his voice. He doesn't talk to me," said Brian Henning.
Unlike most three year olds, Connor Henning can't express himself. He has cerebral palsy.
"We have a connection with Connor, but I don't think it's the same of what we would have had if Connor wasn't impacted by this," said Brian Henning
The Hennings outline their allegations against Omaha's Children's Hospital and Medical Center in a lawsuit filed in Douglas County District Court.
Connor was born premature on Sept. 7th, 2016: 31 weeks into Jennifer Henning's pregnancy. He spent his first 34 days in the NICU at Bergan Mercy Hospital.
"We took him home and had 11 days of him happy, healthy," said Jennifer Henning.
In their lawsuit, the Hennings say he had overcome that and met hospital discharge criteria. But on Oct. 24 2016, the couple says Connor developed problems at home. The Hennings called paramedics, who took the boy to Omaha's Children's Hospital and Medical Center.
Three days later, Jennifer says Connor seemed to be getting better.
"The morning of the 27th, the doctor came in and said he could go home and I was like, 'yes!'" she said.
But in their lawsuit, the Hennings say early that afternoon, medical alarms started sounding in Connor's hospital room.
"I kept looking down at Connor and thought something isn't right," she said.
The alarms were respiratory monitors. Jennifer says she called for help, but in the family's lawsuit, alleges that 'hospital personnel failed to respond promptly.'
Henning said she paged her father, an anesthetic nurse at another hospital. He called back two minutes later.
"'Get off your effing ass. That's an alarm. That's an emergency" and he yelled," Jennifer said.
In their lawsuit, the Hennings say more time passed.
"I was screaming, 'help, help, help'" she said.
The Hennings allege the alarms sounded at least four minutes before nurses arrived in the room. And they contend that delay caused oxygen deprivation to Connor's brain, resulting in cerebral palsey and permanent disability.
In their lawsuit, the Hennings say various life-saving alarms put on their premature baby were ignored due to a medical issue called, 'alarm fatigue.'
According to the National Library of Medicine, health care workers experience sensory overload to alarms because many of them are false. They become desensitized and miss alarms. The American Association of Critical-Car Nurses say clinicians can experience 'sensory overload' from a bevy of sounds--some of which do not signal an emergency. The result: in some cases a delayed response to an alarm.
"Alarm fatigue," said Jennifer.
"Yeah, how do you put a price on any of that. You can't. There is no amount of money in the world that you could give me to sacrifice those freedoms, those experiences. They're invaluable," Brian said.
Children's Hospital says the allegations by the Hennings are completely without merit.
"Our hospital is in strict compliance with (national patient safety guidelines... to mitigate alarm fatigue," said the hospital in a statement to KETV NewsWatch 7.
"In fact, alarm education is part of our annual education training for all nurses. Our entire team of pediatric nurses and staff members are highly educated, highly trained health care professionals and, throughout that professional training, they learn about various alarms, levels of clinical severity and how to appropriately respond."
KETV Newswatch 7's Michelle Bandur asked the Chief Medical Officer of Children's Hospital and Medical Center, what was the response time when Connor's alarms started sounding?
"As I mentioned, I'm not able to give any of the details of a case. Our priorities are around safety and provision of high quality care and our team is great," Dr. Chris Maloney said.
Maloney took the job of CMO one year after Connor's hospitalization.
Due to the lawsuit, Maloney said he cannot comment on the specifics of the Hennings' Case. But he did tell us how the hospital educates personnel on strategies to avoid alarm fatigue.
"Those strategies- our educators continue to provide to all of our staff to minimize the amount of alarms going off and only have alarms set to know that when they go off, we need to respond to them," Maloney said.
In a statement to KETV Newswatch 7, a hospital spokesperson said Connor's case has been carefully reviewed internally and externally by the "Joint Commission", an independent, non-profit organization which accredits health care organizations across the U.S. Children's said the Joint Commission found no reason to take action in this matter.
The hospital also says it will address this litigation through the legal process. More importantly, it says, "We stand firmly behind our expert pediatric medical team and the care they provided to this child."
Bandur asked Maloney, "What did you learn from the Hennings' case?"
"We learned that we are a very good organization. We provide safe, high quality care and our team members come here and are very proud to come to work," he said.
"We will never know who Connor was meant to be," Jennifer said.
Before Oct. 27, 2016, the Hennings say their son was active, able to hold up his head, take bottles and had bright eyes. Now, three years later, they say it's apparent Connor will need constant care for a permanent brain injury.
"He is always going to depend on us for the rest of his life because of an injury that was 100 percent preventable."
The Hennings are seeking a judgment to cover the costs of Connor's present and future medical care costs, as well as unspecified damages. They say they've been deprived of a normal parent-child relationship.
Source: https://www.ketv.com/article/familys-lawsuit-against-omaha-hospital-alleges-alarm-fatigue-led-to-their-sons-brain-injury/28850768