BOSTON -- Children's Hospital is making changes, following the death of a baby girl, Taylor McCormack, who died at the hospital last year after her routine surgery was postponed.
Now Children's is trying to prevent a repeat of what happened, but Taylor's father doesn't think the hospital is doing enough.
NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reports that John McCormack is pleased about the changes but he wishes the hospital had made the changes before his daughter Taylor died.
"I don't want this to happen to another child or another family, because I don't want them to go through the living hell that I'm going through," McCormack said.
McCormack's 13-month-old daughter died after being admitted to the hospital 10 months ago. She was admitted for a routine procedure to remove fluid from her brain. But apparently because the operating rooms were booked up, the hospital postponed the surgery for a day. As a result, the fluid built up, causing irreversible brain damage. Taylor died six days later.
"I promised my daughter one thing when I carried her down to the morgue, that I was going to fight every step of the way for her. And I told her I was sorry, that it shouldn't have happened, and I apologized to her. But I promised her and I'm going to keep my promise to her, and if I have to I'm going to go the full nine yards for her," McCormack said.
The state has investigated and Children's Hospital has performed its own internal review. Some of the steps being taken to improve procedures at the hospital include changes to patient monitoring, where a team of reviewers will make recommendations on patients and educate the staff.
Resident physicians will have to consult with senior physicians before a determination is made about which patients get operating room priority.
All patients who suffer from the same medical condition as Taylor McCormack will be followed with cardiac apnea and continuous oxygen saturation monitoring. And the hospital has promised that resident and staff orientations will improve. One of McCormack's doctors license had expired the day she was admitted, but he continued to work at the hospital.
Hospital officials said that the hospital staff is devastated and it will learn from the tragedy to make sure it never happens again.
The McCormack family is still mulling whether it will file a lawsuit against the hospital.
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