Stephanie Sedillo is suing Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico after her daughter’s leg had to be amputated because the staff allegedly ignored her cries for 10 hours. Sedillo said her daughter Meiah Tafoya fell and hurt her leg while playing at school.
“I got a call from the school, saying there was an incident, and rescue was on the way, and that’s all they told me, so I rushed to the school,” Sedillo explained.
Her daughter was triaged and received an x-ray on her left leg but then had to wait ten hours before being seen again. Sedillo said she repeatedly begged the staff to look at her daughter’s leg, which was reportedly getting cold.
“The guy finally started panicking because he realized that her leg was cold, and she was screaming so crazy that he’s like, ‘We gotta get her transported to UNM [University of New Mexico]’,” Sedillo added.
But it was too late. By the time they reached UNM, the doctors told her that her daughter’s leg needed to be amputated.
Meiah underwent another four surgeries and spent three months in the hospital recovering.
“It’s been hell, it’s been hard,” said Sedillo. The family is now suing the hospital alleging the employees acted “unreasonably” by not providing timely treatment.
“We’re gonna find out exactly why this happened and hopefully prevent something like this from happening to anyone else ever again,” said Todd Bullion, a representative for the Sedillo family.
According to the official court documents, the hospital said it doesn’t have enough information about the incident to comment on the allegations. “All allegations of the complaint” are “not expressly admitted or denied,” the hospital said in a statement.
“Presbyterian was recently served with the complaint, and we will reserve comment on pending litigation for the appropriate venue,” it added.
In the meantime, the Sedillo family has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover Meiah’s expenses. It has so far raised nearly $14,000 of its $20,000 goal.
Meiah said she is still getting used to only having one leg, but she remains strong.
“It’s a little easy, a little hard. I’m going to get through it though,” she said.
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