Geisinger settles with families over infant deaths

Jul. 15--The families of three babies who were killed or severely injured during a deadly bacterial outbreak linked to contaminated breast milk equipment at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville have reached a settlement with the health system, the plaintiffs' attorney announced Wednesday.

Attorney Matt Casey, a founding partner of the Philadelphia law firm Ross Feller Casey, said the terms of the settlement prohibited him from disclosing the amount, but he noted the agreement called for Geisinger to take the rare step of accepting full responsibility for the deaths of two babies as well as the permanent brain injury suffered by a third.

"In addition to monetary compensation, this litigation and settlement have resulted in express apologies from Geisinger to my clients and contributed to Geisinger taking steps to prevent anything like this from happening again," Casey said. "Geisinger has changed the process by which it prepares donor breast milk, and it has accepted full responsibility for what happened to my clients' children. I recognize Geisinger's willingness to cooperate in achieving a resolution of these cases and its efforts to be transparent during the litigation."

Between July 2019 and September, three premature babies died and five others were sickened as a result of the outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria at the hospital, health officials have said.

Casey represented the parents of a pair of twins who were sickened during the outbreak. They have not been publicly identified because no complaint was ever filed in their case, but Casey said one of them died and the other sustained a "catastrophic brain injury" from the infection.

Casey also represented Hazle Twp. residents Zuleyka Rodriguez and Luis David Cepeda, who filed suit in October alleging their week-old son, Abel Cepeda, died because doctors failed to take precautions to protect newborn babies amid the outbreak.

Geisinger officials have maintained they reacted swiftly after identifying the outbreak, saying they notified families "the minute we became aware of it."

The lawsuit, however, alleged the health system's leaders made "a conscious, deliberate decision to conceal the problem for two months."

The complaint noted that during a news conference, Geisinger Chief of Pediatrics Dr. Frank A. Maffei acknowledged knowing in early August that the bacteria was making babies "very sick" in the NICU.

But when Abel was born prematurely at 26.2 weeks on Sept. 24, nobody warned his parents -- even though by that time the infection had already claimed the lives of two other infants, the complaint alleged.

Rodriguez was discharged from the hospital Sept. 27, but Abel remained in the NICU where he contracted the infection, according to the complaint.

He died after going into cardiac arrest the night of Sept. 30, before his parents were able to get back to the hospital to see him.

Even after the baby's death, Geisinger officials failed to promptly disclose that Abel's death was likely due to the same bacteria that had infected other babies in the unit, the lawsuit alleged.

It wasn't until Oct. 6 that the parents were finally notified that Abel died from the same Pseudomonas infection that previously claimed two other lives, according to the complaint.

Geisinger announced in November that health officials had traced the source of the outbreak to contaminated equipment used to prepare donated breast milk.

After discovering the bacteria in the equipment used to measure donor breast milk, Geisinger announced it had changed its process to use only single-use equipment to measure and administer the milk.

Geisinger President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Jaewon Ryu on Wednesday issued an apology to the families.

"Geisinger recognizes Mr. Casey's advocacy on behalf of these families and we apologize to each of the families involved," Ryu said. "The loss of a child is tragic, and this settlement can never replace these young children; however we believe we have taken the steps necessary to prevent future infections and spare other families from this loss."

Contact the writer: jhalpin@citizensvoice.com; 570-821-2058

___

(c)2020 The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

Visit The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) at citizensvoice.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.