Hospital killed my daughter
MA TO SUE, CLAIMS TRAGIC MISTAKE
A’MARI Murriel-Johnson took her first and last breaths just seven years apart inside Brooklyn’s Woodhull Hospital.
The 7-year-old’s heartbroken mother blames her daughter’s shocking death last month on a misdiagnosis by a callous doctor who she says ignored A’Mari’s recent medical history.
“That doctor should not be operating on children,” said mother Kareema Murriel. “He should have taken the proper precautions . . . I don’t want this to happen to anyone else or any other families.”
Lawyers representing Murriel sent a Friday letter to the state Department of Health, formally requesting an investigation into the hospital’s handling of the case.
The girl’s mother expanded on the complaint, providing to the Daily News her version of A’Mari’s final hours.
A’Mari was pronounced dead at 4:28 p.m. on Jan. 14, less than 24 hours after Dr. Alexander Adotey failed to properly treat her for a strep throat that became a fatal case of pneumonia, the mother charged.
“She was my only child,” said Murriel, 31. “She was born in Woodhull, got all her shots at Woodhull, her medical records are at Woodhull. And unfortunately she died at Woodhull.”
The social worker hired attorneys Sanford Rubenstein and Scott Rynecki last week and intends to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital.
“This tragedy is an example of negligent medical care provided at Woodhull Hospital, a city facility that so many who live in BedfordStuyvesant rely on when they get sick,” said Rubenstein.
Murriel recalled her daughter as a fun-loving honor roll student with dreams of becoming a real life version of the animated kids’ character Doc McStuffins — a 7-year-old aspiring physician.
Her little girl came home from school on Jan. 12, complaining of stomach and throat pain.
“She had a 101 (degree) fever so I took her to the doctor at Woodhull the next day, thinking it must be strep throat again,” said Murriel.
The concerned mom said she warned Adotey and the nurses that her daughter had the contagious infection in 2016 and 2017 and insisted on a strep test.
According to Murriel, the doctor responded rudely and declared that the girl did not have strep throat.
“(He said) that she had the same flu-related illness other children who came into the hospital had,” the mom said.
Murriel asked another doctor to do the test. After the cultures were taken, she says a nurse gave the little girl Tamiflu and sent the mother and daughter home.
After A’Mari spent Jan. 13 vomiting and sleeping, she woke up feeling better the next day.
“I gave her a banana and another dose of the Tamiflu and she threw up again,” the mother recounted. “I put her in a coat and drove over to Woodhull.”
The medical staff again told Murriel that her daughter had the flu. Murriel asked for the results of the strep test and says she was told her daughter tested positive.
“My daughter was in pain . ... She was panting heavily, she was saying she can’t breathe and asked me to not let her die,” said Murriel.
The nurses now said they needed to transfer her daughter to another hospital specializing in cardiac care and pneumonia, according to Murriel. Little A’Mari never made it out of Woodhull.
“She threw up twice, slumped over and started coding,” the mother said. “She died on Jan. 14.”
Adotey has been practicing pediatric medicine for 20 years and has been employed with the city’s Health and Hospitals agency since 2012.
Reached at his Rockland County home, Adotey said he remembers the case and that he did his due diligence in treating A’Mari.
“We have the proper sources of dealing with suspicions that come up,” Adotey told The News. “If she has any questions about the care, there are other ways of doing it. The hospital is there, we have risk management if she has questions or anything because the case has been investigated.”
A spokesman for NYC Health and Hospitals expressed the agency’s sympathy toward the girl’s family.
“The untimely death of any child is always tragic,” said the spokesman. “Our heartfelt thoughts are with the family.”
Mourners at A’Mari’s funeral on Jan. 24 wore her favorite colors — pink and purple — and unicorn balloons floated around the room.
Rubenstein called for state health officials to “take a hard look at revoking the licenses to practice medicine of those medical professionals who bear the responsibility for her wrongful death.”