The New York State Health Department concluded that Stony Brook University Medical Center failed to diagnose a heart condition in one of their patients, leading to his untimely death.
William Gonzalez, a 6-year-old boy, was treated by Stony Brook Medical Center on three separate occasions in August and September of 2007. William had been vomiting regularly and was unable to hold down any food. His parents originally brought him to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, where he was diagnosed with gastrointestinal reflux. Brookhaven then referred Gonzalez to Stony Brook for further treatment.
Stony Brook saw Gonzalez three times, and each time treated him for stomach problems, when in fact he was suffering from a heart condition. On his second visit to Stony Brook, an abdominal x-ray revealed that Gonzalez had an enlarged heart. However, the hospital has no documentation that this condition was dealt with at the time.
On September 11, his third and final trip to the hospital, Gonzalez received a chest x-ray which verified the enlarged heart condition. Several hours later, Gonzalez was dead.
The state report indicated that Stony Brook failed to check his heart until it was too late to save his life. It also criticized the hospital for not evaluating all possible causes of his vomiting problems. Ultimately, Stony Brook Medical Center was found to have provided inadequate treatment of Gonzalez’s condition.
This is not the first time Stony Brook Medical Center has been accused of medical malpractice. In 2006, four families accused the hospital of misdiagnosing their children’s heart conditions as a reflux issue. State investigations of these claims failed to find sufficient evidence against the hospital to warrant a law suit.
If you have been the victim of medical malpractice in the Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Long Island areas, please contact Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C. today for an initial consultation.
