The mother of a disabled 5-year-old Ligonier boy who died last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a New Jersey-based home health care provider and a nurse who the family claimed did not properly care for the child.
According to the lawsuit filed in Westmoreland County, Gabrielle Bronson, the boy’s mother, contends Bayada Home Health Care Inc. was hired to provide in home care for the child, who had been diagnosed with an illness that that left him a quadriplegic and on a ventilator that required he receive home nursing care 19 hours a day.
The lawsuit contends one of Bayada’s nurses came to care for the child at 7 a.m. July 26 and failed to ensure his medical equipment operated properly, that the boy’s head was elevated and that she was not close enough to see that he experienced respiratory distress.
At 9 a.m., the nurse discovered the boy unresponsive with no pulse, pale, cold and foaming around his mouth and called 911, according to the lawsuit. The child was taken to Excela Health Latrobe Hospital but never regained consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m.
Bronson contends Bayada and the nurse were negligent and seeks unspecified damages in the three-count lawsuit.
Bayada issued a statement Thursday in which it said it could not comment on the allegations contained in the court filing.
“We are devastated over the loss of our client. It was a privilege to care for this child who we adored, and our deepest sympathies go out to the family. At this time we are not aware of the details of the allegations, and as such, we are unable to comment further,” the company said in its statement.
