A mother from Alabama has filed a lawsuit against the hospital where her 9-month-old daughter died, alleging that the hospital failed to disclose that its computer systems had been crippled by a hack, resulting in decreased care and the baby’s death.
When Nicko Silar was born on July 17, 2019, Springhill Medical Center was in the midst of a ransomware attack, and the failure of electronic devices caused a doctor to be unable to properly monitor the child’s condition during delivery, according to the lawsuit filed by the child’s mother, Teiranni Kidd.
The baby died last year after months of critical care at another hospital due to severe brain damage and other issues.
The case was first revealed on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, which was originally filed in Mobile County in 2019 while Nicko was still alive.
Springhill did not mention the severity of the breach publicly or to Kidd, according to the malpractice lawsuit, which demands an undisclosed sum of money from the hospital and Dr. Katelyn Braswell Parnell, who delivered Nicko. It argues that if the woman had realised what was going on, she would have gone to a different and safer facility for labour and delivery.
Springhill has denied wrongdoing and requested a judge to reject the lawsuit’s most serious claim, that authorities collaborated to publicly establish a “false, misleading, and deceptive narrative” about the cyberattack in a plot that put the child’s birth in jeopardy.
Parnell was “fully aware of the inaccessibility of the relevant systems, including those in the labour and delivery unit, and nevertheless judged that (Kidd) could safely deliver her at Springhill,” according to the hospital. According to the hospital, it had no legal need to provide Kidd with details of the cyberattack under Alabama law.
Nicko’s injuries and death were not caused by Parnell or her medical group, Bay Area Physicians for Women.
The day before the baby was born, Springhill issued a public statement regarding the incident, claiming that staff “has continued to safely care for our patients and will continue to offer the high quality of service that our patients deserve and expect,” according to WKRG-TV.
