The parents of a two-year-old girl who tragically lost her life in a Georgia hospital following an allergic reaction to ant bites have filed a lawsuit. Bethelhem Getu Hundie and Getahun Birhanu, the parents of the deceased, claim that Piedmont Eastside Medical Center in Snellville, Georgia, was ill-equipped to handle their daughter’s severe allergic reaction.
The lawsuit, filed on April 4 in Gwinnett County, recounts the events of October 7, 2024. On this day, the young girl, Maya Getahun, was rushed to the hospital after being bitten by ants and subsequently developing an allergic reaction. The family alleges that despite Maya’s evident difficulty in breathing, it took the medical staff over 20 minutes to administer epinephrine, a medication typically used to treat severe allergic reactions.
The lawsuit further claims that when the decision was made to intubate Maya, whose blood oxygen saturation was at 97%, the hospital did not have the appropriate size equipment for a child of her age. This was reportedly discovered by Dr. Salazar, the doctor attempting the procedure, only after administering drugs that paralyzed Maya for the intubation process.
The complaint details the heart-wrenching scene where the parents were forced to watch their daughter’s life slip away due to the lack of oxygen. The family argues that it is the ordinary duty of care for any emergency department to stock appropriate equipment, especially for pediatric intubation.
The parents are seeking claims for negligence, wrongful death, and punitive damages in an amount exceeding $10,000 against both the hospital and Dr. Salazar. Their attorney, Lloyd Bell, stated that the medical professionals at the hospital “failed them at every turn.”
Bell further emphasized that the lawsuit aims to hold the hospital accountable and seek justice for Maya and her family. By bringing attention to these tragic events, the family hopes to prompt Piedmont to revise their policies and procedures to prevent such a tragedy from happening to another child.