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Background: Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill. (Google Maps). Inset: Ava Wilson (Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, P.C.).
The family of an Indiana girl who beat cancer sued the Illinois hospital that sent her home with a toxic amount of prescription pain medications, leading to her death.
According to the lawsuit filed in Illinois’ Cook County, Ava Wilson, 11, was in remission for b-lymphoblastic leukemia when she went with her mother to a follow-up appointment at Advocate Children’s Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, on Oct. 29, 2020. According to the Wilsons’ family attorney, Ava was “crying in pain” and having a hard time walking while they met with a nurse practitioner. Lab tests were conducted and revealed that Ava had “low platelet counts, low blood cell counts, and high liver enzymes” in addition to low blood pressure.
The Wilsons’ attorneys — from the legal team of Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. — said that rather than admit Ava to keep an eye on her troubling symptoms, the girl was instead sent home with increased dosages for morphine and gabapentin.
On the night of Oct. 31, 2020, Ava died in her sleep — tests revealed lethal amounts of morphine in her blood.
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The civil complaint, reviewed by Law&Crime, stated that Ava was prescribed 100 mg of gabapentin three times a day and 15 mg of morphine every four hours as needed following her Oct. 29, 2020, visit. Both medication doses were notable increases in what Ava had already been taking. The Wilsons’ attorney also noted in their press release that “[w]hen taken together, the medications can make each other stronger.”
The complaint also stated that while Ava’s regular oncologist did not see the girl at what would be her final appointment, she “endorsed” the new treatment plan for “at-home pain management.” The oncologist was not a defendant in the lawsuit.
Lead trial attorney Matthew L. Williams told the court, “Instead of admitting Ava to the hospital to get her blood pressure, heart rate and pain levels within acceptable and normal limits, Advocate employees sent Ava home” with an “excessive” amount of pain medication.
“Ava’s body was yelling out to these clinicians, ‘help me!’ and they just ignored it,” Williams said.
The hospital staff, represented by attorneys at Hall Prangle LLC, argued that Ava’s symptoms at her appointment were consistent with complications from leukemia. They also stated that the medications prescribed were “within the recommended range.”
During the trial, which began on May 29, a forensic neuropathologist testified that Ava’s death was due to the amount and combination of medications in her system. The Wilsons’ attorneys said in their press release that Ava died of “acute combined drug toxicity of morphine, hydroxyzine, and gabapentin.”
On June 10, a jury agreed with the Wilsons, deciding in favor of the plaintiffs and awarding Ava’s surviving family members $20,500,000 for “their past and future loss of society and past and future grief, sorrow and mental suffering.”
Aaron D. Boeder, another member of the Wilsons’ legal team, said in the press release, “While nothing will ease the depth of Ava’s loved ones’ pain, the family appreciates that the jury recognized that Ava’s death was preventable and that she should still be with them today.
Law&Crime reached out to Advocate Health and Hospitals Corporation but did not receive an immediate response. In a statement to McClatchy News, a spokesperson said, “Our hearts go out to this family. We are committed to providing appropriate care to every patient. Due to patient privacy, we are unable to comment further.”
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