Florida Family Blames Transport Delay in Baby's Death
The mother and grandmother of a 2-week-old boy who died after they called 911 believe the baby might be alive if paramedics had acted more quickly.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --
The mother and grandmother of a 2-week-old boy who died after they called 911 believe the baby might be alive if paramedics had acted more quickly.
William Clifton was born Feb. 23 and almost immediately had health issues. He spent three days in pediatric intensive care because of respiratory problems.
A few days after doctors cleared the baby to go home, his mother and grandmother noticed the same symptoms.
Jeannie Quick, the grandmother, is a registered nurse. She told her daughter to call 911.
"He was grey; his eyes rolled back in his head; he was limp," Quick said. "I wanted them to take my grandson to the hospital fast."
A crew from Fire Station 31 arrived within five minutes, but the family told Channel 4 that instead of rushing William to the hospital, the lead paramedic disputed whether the boy needed help.
"At least three or four times he said: 'There's no reason for us to transport him. You all are just overreacting. He's a perfectly healthy baby,'" Quick said.
"They stood there and argued over this until finally (Quick) said, 'Just put your shoes on. We're just going to have to take him ourselves,'" Clifton said.
"Why would you not take a ... baby that has already had respiratory arrest?" Quick asked. "Why would you not?"
"(The staff at Wolfson Children's Hospital) asked, 'Why didn't you have him transported?' I said, 'I tried,'" Clifton told Channel 4's Dan Leveton.
"I can tell you an internal investigation was immediately launched," Jacksonville Fire-Rescue Division spokesman Tom Francis said.
Francis said it is hard to believe that a rescue crew would hesitate to transport a patient in distress.
"I'm quite confident and convinced based upon the information I've received the individuals in the field performed to the best of their ability and with all due diligence," Francis said.
A quality board is scheduled to take up the issue on Friday.
The family disagrees, believing that even though he was sick, quick action could have saved his life.
"He would have had a whole lot better chance if they would have taken the time to actually look at this baby and assume that something was wrong with him," Quick said.
