OAK LAWN, Ill. (WKRC) – An 11-year-old girl who beat cancer allegedly died after the hospital gave her “excessive” pain medication instead of properly treating her, prompting a lawsuit from her family.
According to a lawsuit obtained by Law&Crime, 11-year-old Ava Wilson’s family filed a lawsuit against Advocate Children’s Hospital regarding the way the organization treated Wilson’s follow-up treatment after she began remission for b-lymphoblastic leukemia.
The family claimed that during a follow-up appointment on Oct. 29, 2020, they told staff that Wilson was having difficulty walking and was “crying in pain.” Furthermore, lab tests reportedly found that the child had “low platelet counts, low blood cell counts, and high liver enzymes.”
Despite this, Wilson was not held for further observation or treatment and was instead sent home with an increased prescription for morphine and gabapentin, the family claimed. This decision was reportedly “endorsed” by Wilson’s regular oncologist.
“Instead of admitting Ava to the hospital to get her blood pressure, heart rate and pain levels within acceptable and normal limits, Advocate employees sent Ava home,” said the trial’s lead attorney, Matthew L. Williams. Williams claimed that the amount of medication given to Wilson was “excessive.”
Two days after the appointment, on October 31, Wilson died in her sleep due to lethal amounts of morphine in her system, the lawsuit claimed.
The family argued in its lawsuit that the new doses, 100 mg of gabapentin three times a day and 15 mg of morphine every four hours as needed, were much more than the child’s previous prescription, and her attorney noted that if “taken together, the medications can make each other stronger.”
The hospital’s representatives argued that Wilson’s health was in-line with leukemia complications, and that the prescribed medication was “within the recommended range.”
A forensic neuropathologist testified during the trial that the child died due to the medication in her system.
The lawsuit finally concluded on June 10 when the jury agreed with the Wilson family and awarded them $20,500,000, citing “past and future loss of society and past and future grief, sorrow and mental suffering.”