A California couple has filed a lawsuit against a Sacramento hospital and its employees after their 2-year-old daughter waited five hours in the emergency room to receive treatment for a strep infection that forced doctors to amputate a hand and both of her feet, FOX40.com reported.
Little Malyia Jeffers was originally taken to the emergency room at Methodist Hospital in Sacramento in November where she waited with her family for several hours with what doctors thought was just a cold, fever and rash. But her condition quickly deteriorated, and she eventually went into liver failure.
At that point she was transported to the intensive care unit at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento and was later flown to the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, where they amputated her limbs.
"This is the hardest thing I was dreading the most... was having to make a decision,” Malyia’s dad, Ryan Jeffers, told the news station. “They said 'your daughter's dying and the only thing we can do to save her is to amputate.’”
She is now in intensive rehabilitation therapy, without a prognosis of how much therapy she will need.
Malyia’s parents are suing the hospital for an unknown amount to cover the rehabilitation therapy that will be needed for their daughter.
According to the suit, the hospital "chose to negligently staff, operate and supervise the emergency room" resulting in Maylia's extensive surgeries.
In response, Methodist Hospital released the following statement: "At Methodist Hospital patient care and safety is our number one priority. We were sorry to hear about the eventual outcome for Maylia and our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family. We are unable to comment on matters of impending litigation."
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