One of three babies accidentally drugged with morphine at Anne Arundel Medical Center Jan. 31 may have been seriously injured, and the family is considering suing the hospital, a lawyer for the head of the critical-care nursery said yesterday.
Dr. Sandra Lee Loeb, head of the hospital's neonatal unit, hired Annapolis lawyer David Levin to represent her this week after lawyers for one of the families suggested the hospital may be responsible for seriously injuring one of the infants, Mr. Levin said. Lawyers for one of the parents tried to question Dr. Loeb and other hospital staff this week, he said.
He said malpractice lawyers are mobilizing.
"This case is like a bright light to a moth," said Mr. Levin, who represents malpractice defendants. "I don't see any reason why there won't be lawsuits. The only issue is, what is it worth?"
Three babies in the Annapolis hospital's critical-care nursery were placed on ventilators within 14 hours of one another after pharmacist Susan E. Kron filled a handful of syringes with morphine instead of a common blood thinner used to flush intravenous tubes, hospital officials said this week.
The hospital has fired Ms. Kron and accepted the resignation of pharmacy director Larry Bierley. State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee has charged Ms. Kron with reckless endangerment, a felony, and practicing without a license, a misdemeanor. The Maryland Board of Pharmacy also is investigating Ms. Kron and could refuse to renew her license, depending on the outcome of the probe.
Hospital officials said the babies no longer suffer any effects of the opiates and that one baby is home. The others remain in the hospital. Hospital officials would not identify the families.
But one set of parents contends their infant is more sluggish after the incident and may be experiencing signs of more serious neurological damage, said Mr. Levin, the hospital lawyer, who also did not identify the family. The premature baby, who received roughly a teaspoon of morphine, is expected to stay in the hospital for several months because of unrelated conditions, hospital officials said.
Mr. Levin downplayed the seriousness of the child's symptoms.
"These are the kinds of things which may go away, but, of course, the family may not accept that," he said.
Mr. Levin contended these charges may be the result of stressed, worried parents.
Paul Bekman, who represents plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases, said it was too soon to tell if the babies were harmed seriously.
"The question that can't be answered is the extent of the injury," he said. "What side effects did the children have? What pain or suffering did they experience? What lasting effects?"
Martin L. Doordan, president of Anne Arundel Health System, the hospital's parent company, said he did not expect that the hospital would be sued.
"Hopefully those issues won't occur," he said. "There's no reason."
Last week, hospital officials hired Warren Sanger and Peter Bower, two New York lawyers who specialize in representing medical malpractice defendants. Mr. Doordan said he hired the lawyers because they are known for their investigative skills.
Medical malpractice suits involving newborns may not be filed immediately because infants typically do not display symptoms of neurological disorders for months or years, and even the sickest child can appear normal as an infant, medical experts say.
The parents of the three babies could sue the hospital well into the next decade, said Joanne Suder, a Baltimore lawyer who handles many medical malpractice cases.
The law is designed to protect parents in such cases, she said. Parents can sue hospitals for allegedly harming their newborns even when those children reach 11 years of age.
"I don't think there's any way in the world a hospital can make any plain statement about there being no permanent damage because they just don't know at this point," she said.
An infant denied oxygen, for example, might not show the symptoms of that episode until later in life, she said.
Anne Arundel Medical Center, like many other large health-care institutions in the state, is self-insured.
The insurance covers $250,000 in medical malpractice from a single claim, and a total of $750,000 for all claims from a single event. When claims go higher than that, the hospital has a commercial insurer to cover the difference.
Ms. Kron has no criminal record in Maryland, according to court records. She graduated in 1972 from the University of Iowa School of Pharmacy in Iowa City. In June 1972, she took a job at the Alexandria Medical Arts Pharmacy in Virgina, according to the Maryland Board of Pharmacy.
When she applied to be certified in Maryland Sept. 16, 1986, she was licensed in Iowa and in Virginia. She took the Maryland pharmaceutical law test and her application here was approved. The board has investigated Ms. Kron's record in Iowa and Virginia, and found no violations, said Barbara Faltz-Jackson, the board's consumer commissioner.