CPS Takes Couple’s Children After False Accusations Of Shaking Infant Daughter To Death By MD Calling Herself ‘Dr. House’
A New York state couple says they were wrongly accused of shaking their infant daughter to death by an MD who touted herself as “Dr. House,” after the fictional television doctor who could solve the most puzzling of cases.
However, the couple says that their daughter didn’t die from child abuse but rather medical neglect. The couple, Sara and Padraig Keenan, say that their infant daughter Lana died after a series of grave medical errors by her medical care team and wrongful accusations against the family.
The incident left the family unable to remain by their dying daughter’s bedside and resulted in their two other children being removed from the home by social workers, with the agency pursuing custody of the children for 11 months after Lana’s death despite autopsies ruling there were no signs of abuse and no signs of abuse being found in the home investigation. Now the Keenan family has filed a federal lawsuit seeking unspecified damages from Dr Hoffman-Rosenfeld (aka “Dr. House”), Northwell Health, Suffolk County, and Exchange Ambulances.
The Daily Mail reports that doting parents Sara and Padraig Keenan dealt with a horrific tragedy that was made worse by false accusations against the family, which ultimately led to the removal of their two young sons from their care as their infant daughter lay dying in the hospital. The couple claims that on January 3, 2014, their lives were forever changed when they entered the room of their three-month-old daughter Lana and found her choking on her own vomit in her crib. The family friend was able to revive the infant via CPR, and 911 was called. However, the Keenans say that the “medical negligence” began the moment the ambulance arrived at the scene.
According to the lawsuit and Keenan’s account, the ambulance staff did not intubate the infant or attempt to shield her from the elements when they removed the child from the home and took her down the street to a waiting ambulance. They say the infant was, therefore, exposed to the cold temperatures, and her brain was deprived of much needed oxygen, as she was not intubated or given oxygen at any point that she was being taken from the home to the waiting ambulance. Additionally, instead of taking the child to a hospital with a pediatric intensive care unit, of which the family says there were two nearby, baby Lana was taken to Bay Shore’s Southside Hospital, which did not have an intensive care unit for pediatric patients. Therefore, the family says the hospital staff simply pumped their daughter with a cocktail of deadly drugs.
The NY Post reveals that one of the drugs given to the baby was allegedly Propofol, the drug that is believed to have resulted in Michael Jackson’s death. The lawsuit claims that this deadly drug cocktail deprived Lana’s brain of oxygen for over an hour before she was finally transferred to Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Queens. The choice seems based solely on the fact that the hospital was a sister hospital to Southside also run by Northwell Health. However, once arriving at Cohen, the family says things only got worse.
At Cohen, Dr. Jamie Hoffman-Rosenfeld was placed in charge of the infant’s care. The doctor allegedly introduced herself to the distraught family as “Dr. House,” likening herself to the fictional television doctor noted for solving the most difficult cases. However, Dr. Hoffman-Rosenfeld would place blame on the Keenans for their daughter’s death, ruling the incident a case of Shaken Baby Syndrome. As a result, social workers were called to the hospital and ordered that the Keenan family could have no contact with their dying daughter. Therefore, Lana sat in the hospital for weeks without her parents before passing away.
While coping with the fact that their daughter was dying, the family also was forced to deal with social workers who proceeded to remove their remaining two sons from their care. The boys, ages six and three, were taken into custody, and abuse was investigated in the Keenan home. Following the death of Lana, two separate autopsies were performed, with the family noting that neither autopsy revealed any signs of abuse. That didn’t stop social workers from continuing to fight for custody of their sons for 11 months after their daughter’s death. Finally, in January of 2016, 11 months after Lana’s death, the Keenans were cleared of any abuse or wrongdoing.
Now the family is fighting back and has filed a federal lawsuit against all those they feel were involved in their daughter’s death, which they claim was a result of medical neglect. Likewise, the family is suing the County for viciously pursing child abuse charges and taking their sons despite the autopsies proving no abuse had taken place in the home.
It appears on the couple’s Facebook pages that they welcomed a new baby girl into their lives in November of last year while the issues with the social workers were still ongoing. The photos of the new baby girl were mistakenly reported by other news agencies as baby Lana. However, it appears the baby in those photographs are the newborn, not Lana.
Do you think the Keenans deserve monetary compensation for the trials that resulted from the medical team charged with caring for their dying daughter? If it is determined that the doctor was neglectful in the case, should she lose her license to practice medicine?
[Image via Facebook]
