web1_123791673-f4c19eeb755a4d3b9a68d7c0c1af12af.jpg

No. 8 Irish need to win out and have help for playoff berth

web1_Earth-Conservancy-Projects-2.jpg

Mike Dziak retiring as Earth Conservancy head

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The Hazle Township parents of an infant who died at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville have officially filed a lawsuit against the medical provider, just more than a week after Geisinger held a news conference officially acknowledging the outbreak of a deadly bacteria on their neonatal intensive care unit that led to two other infant deaths.</p><p>The attorney representing the family is calling the death a tragedy, made all the more tragic as he suggests it could have been prevented.</p><p>Luis David Cepeda and Zuleyka Rodriguez filed the suit in Luzerne County Court on Thursday through their attorney Matthew Casey of the Philadelphia-based Ross Feller Casey. The official filing comes after last week&#8217;s announcement that the Hazle Township family had hired Casey to represent them in regards to the death of their infant son, Abel Cepeda.</p><p>Abel was born on Sept. 24, dying less than a week later on Sept. 30, after contracting a bacterium called pseudomonas aeruginosa in the NICU in the Danville hospital. This point is not disputed by either party; early last week, Geisinger held a news conference on Oct. 7 acknowledging the outbreak in the NICU, which infected eight total babies, killing three of them.</p><p>What Abel&#8217;s parents and his attorney are arguing, though, is that Geisinger did not do enough to prevent the deaths.</p><p>&#8220;It is difficult to imagine a more damning set of facts giving rise to three infant deaths in six weeks time in a Level IV NICU than those that resulted in the death of Abel Cepeda,&#8221; Casey wrote in the suit.</p><p>According to the suit, the outbreak took place between July and September of this year, and the family suggests that Geisinger actively worked to conceal the outbreak from patients and the public so as to avoid losing patients.</p><p>&#8220;Had Geisinger and its medical staff prioritized the health and safety of its most fragile patients over its reputation and financial interests, as the standard of care required, Abel Cepeda would not have suffered the catastrophic injuries he did and he would not have died,&#8221; Casey wrote in the suit.</p><p>The suit, which is filed against the Geisinger Health System as a whole, along with the Geisinger Clinics in Danville, Wilkes-Barre and Forty Fort, says Rodriguez was admitted to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville on Sept. 18. By this point, the suit says, Geisinger had long been aware of the bacterial outbreak in the NICU, as several infants had already been stricken ill, with two of them dying by the time the mother was admitted to the hospital.</p><p>Rodriguez delivered the baby prematurely, at only 26.2 weeks gestation, which would require an extended stay in the NICU unit.</p><p>&#8220;Despite that knowledge, and in reckless disregard for the continued health and safety of her then-unborn baby, Defendants made a conscious, deliberate decision to instruct Zuleyka to go to GMC, and to admit her for the specific purpose of delivering her preterm baby and admitting him to the NICU in the midst of a lethal Pseudomonas outbreak,&#8221; the suit reads.</p><p>The suit says Geisinger at no point attempted to transfer Rodriguez before Abel&#8217;s birth to another hospital in the region, despite the ongoing outbreak. After his birth, the suit says Abel&#8217;s parents were discharged from the hospital while he was in the NICU, and they were told he was doing well, and that they were not made aware of the infections and deaths in the NICU.</p><p>&#8220;Instead, and in an ongoing deviation from the standard of care, Abel&#8217;s parents were falsely reassured that Abel was in safe hands and being properly cared for in the NICU when, in fact, the opposite was true,&#8221; the suit says.</p><p>On Sept. 30, the parents were awoken in the middle of the night by a series of phone calls from GMC alerting them to Abel becoming very sick and that they should come to the hospital. Abel passed away before his parents were able to get there.</p><p>The suit says that the hospital did not tell the parents about the other deaths in the hospitals for days after Abel&#8217;s death, and were allegedly in fact not told until the day before the Oct. 7 news conference. During news appearances that day and after, the suit says, Geisinger acknowledged being aware of the the bacteria since August.</p><p>The family is seeking all the compensation a court deems appropriate.</p><p>In a statement Thursday afternoon, a Geisinger representative said they express sympathies to the families involved in the infant deaths, but that both the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated they have gone &#8220;above and beyond their best practice guidelines to eradicate the bacteria as well as prevent additional cases.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;We will continue our meticulous and comprehensive infection control practices at Geisinger Medical Center to reduce the risk of any infection in any infant, and we remain committed to providing the highest level of family-centered neonatal care for our families and babies,&#8221; the release went on.</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_gavel-3.jpeg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/web1_gavel-3.jpeg</photo0><caption0></caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>GESINGER DEATHS</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Patrick Kernan</p><p>pkernan@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Family of infant who died in Geisinger Danville files suit against company