Seven-month-old Covid-positive baby dies of untreated bacterial infection because it was discovered too late and not treated on time, parents to file lawsuit

Since the pandemic began more than two years ago, most of the hospital capacities were switched towards treating Covid-ill patients, policy that put a lot of people in danger because treatment of other diseases and surgeries were constantly postponed. Now when the Covid-19 numbers are declining, hospitals are slowly getting back to normal, but the damage to some people is already done.

A 7-month-old Covid-ill baby died of untreated bacterial infection and the parents of the little girl are now considering to file lawsuit against the hospitals because the doctors in both hospitals only focused in treating the coronavirus without conducting additional tests that would have discovered the infection on time, which later ended up to be fatal of the baby.

According to International Business Times, Charles and Rocio Cunningham rushed their baby Calani to a local Wisconsin hospital late February because she was not feeling well. She was admitted to the emergency room and after initial examination, she tested positive on Covid-19. The parents were told to go home and given instructions how to treat the illness. Despite the treatment, the baby wasn’t feeling better in the upcoming days and they went to another hospital.

When they arrived to the second hospital, the Cunninghams begged the doctors to do more tests because the baby wasn’t eating for days, her stomach was rock hard and her neck also became very swollen. But the parents were told there was nothing to worry about since all those symptoms were normal in Covid patients, according to the doctors. In a matter of days, the baby’s condition worsened and she died from MRSA, a staph infection, while doctors were doing everything in their power to save her life.

“We, as parents, took her to the best place for children in hopes that they would find out what’s wrong with her and fix her so we can bring her back home, and they just allowed her to get worse right before their eyes,” said Cunningham.

“When the ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine was placed through her neck, large amounts of puss drained out. The fluid from her neck and lungs were sent for a cultural sample, which came back positive for MRSA,” the child’s parents wrote on GoFundMe.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a staph infection resistant to most antibiotics, but most of the people that develop MRSA survive if the infection is discovered in time. However, in the case of Calani, the infection was discovered too late and the baby girl didn’t receive proper MRSA treatment.

The parents decided to publicly speak about the loss of their daughter in an effort to encourage other parents to fight and demand more from doctors, especially when there is a serious medical problem with your child in hopes other parents do not have to go through a similar tragedy.

“It hurts just looking back on everything. So again, the one thing I would want to tell parents is just keep trying. Just keep asking for answers, keep demanding answers. We know our child, we know when our children are okay. Don’t rest until you know your child is okay,” Charles said.

“You have a voice. Be a bigger advocate than what we were. Don’t let them ignore you. Do not let them ignore you. You know when something’s wrong with your child or with yourself, so fight more, demand more from them,” said Rocio.