Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Mass. General suspends pediatric cardiac program
Massachusetts attorney Thomas M. Kiley concentrates on legal issues affecting children’s injuries and health issues. A recent article in The Boston Globe says that Massachusetts General Hospital suspended its pediatric cardiac surgery program when two babies suffered serious complications after errors were made during open heart surgery.
Although both babies survived the operations, one suffered neurological damage, according to Dr. David Torchiana, head of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. He said that in both cases technical errors were made during the surgeries. Massachusetts General has had a pediatric heart surgery program since the 1960s. In 2007, the hospital hired a dedicated pediatric heart surgeon, Dr. Jeff Myers. Because the program is small the hospital officials decided to put in place special monitoring for pediatric cardiac surgery and sent difficult cases to Children’s Hospital in Boston.
Congenital heart disease is a general name for any type of malformation of the heart, heart valves or major (great) blood vessels that is present at birth. According to the Mayo Clinic, about one in every 120 babies is born with some form of heart defect. Because most of these babies grow to adulthood, there are now about one million adults in the United States with congenital heart disease. Many people with congenital heart defects can live full and healthy lives.
Dr. Torchiana said the hospital conducted an in-depth review last year and improvements were suggested that the hospital is in the process of implementing. The program is currently shut down, and the hospital is evaluating whether to reopen it. Hospital officials say they will refer pediatric heart patients to other Boston hospitals for the immediate future.
According to the article, Mass. General has performed 90 pediatric heart surgeries in the last 20 months. There was one death out of the 90 operations in the past 20 months. Children’s Hospital operated on 1,100 babies and children during the past year.
According to NECN.com, some in the industry feel the smaller programs are at a disadvantage compared to the larger programs where doctors have experience with many more surgeries.
Dr. Torchiana said the hospital will hire outside reviewers to help them decide whether to reopen the program. Because the program is small and the number of cases low, hospital officials thought the cases of the two babies indicated they should close the program.
Massachusetts state health officials will decide if they need to investigate after they receive the internal reviews from Mass. General.
