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Background: Piedmont Eastside Medical Center (Google Maps). Inset: Maya Getahun (court filing).
The parents of a 2-year-old girl “looked on helplessly” as their 2-year-old child perished at Georgia hospital after being bitten by ants, according to a lawsuit the family has filed over the girl’s death.
According to a complaint filed on April 4 in Gwinnett County, Bethelhem Getu Hundie and Getahun Birhanu, the parents of Maya Getahun, a local emergency room lacked the proper equipment to intubate their daughter who was in the midst of allergic reaction.
The family’s complaint said Maya’s parents brought her to the emergency department at Piedmont Eastside Medical Center in Snellville, Georgia, on Oct. 7, 2024 after Maya was bitten by ants and developed an allergic reaction. The family said the child was “wheezing” and had “labored breathing,” and that although medical staff did realize the child was experiencing an allergic reaction, they waited over 20 minutes before administering epinephrine.
The complaint noted that “Maya had a blood oxygen saturation of 97%” when the decision to intubate was made.
The parents allege that the doctor who tried to intubate Maya found that the ER did not have the right size equipment necessary for a young child — and that this realization came too late.
“As the [rapid sequence intubation] drugs paralyzed Maya, Dr. Salazar discovered that the Hospital lacked the equipment needed to complete the pediatric intubation,” said the complaint.
As a result, the complaint said, “Maya’s parents looked on helplessly as their daughter slowly died from lack of oxygen.”
The plaintiffs argue that stocking a hospital with appropriate equipment, “particularly for a pediatric intubation,” is part of any emergency department’s ordinary duty of care.
Maya’s parents bring claims for negligence, wrongful death, and punitive damages in an unspecified amount over $10,000 against the hospital and the doctor.
Attorney Lloyd Bell, who represents the family, said in a statement to Law&Crime that the medical professionals at the hospital “failed them at every turn.”
“This lawsuit is about holding the hospital accountable and getting justice for Maya and her family,” Bell said. “By shining a light on these horrible events, the family hopes Piedmont will change their policies and procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen to another child.”
You can read the full complaint here.
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