Grieving mother pickets KMC
The grieving family of a Spirit Lake toddler has been picketing Kootenai Medical Center, claiming the girl was denied treatment at a doctor’s office and in the hospital emergency room days before her death because she didn’t have insurance.
Riley Jane Harris died Jan. 28, two months shy of her second birthday. Kootenai County Chief Deputy Coroner Jody DeLuca said preliminary autopsy results show Riley died of viral myocarditis, a heart condition that may have gone undetected. DeLuca said it could be 10 weeks before final autopsy results are available.
Jamie Lacey, the girl’s mother, said she believes her daughter’s heart condition was brought on by an ear infection and pneumonia that were untreated by the doctors.
Hospital attorney Peter Erbland said he can’t comment on Riley’s treatment or medical condition because of patient privacy laws. But Erbland said those protesting the hospital’s care also don’t have that patient information and “have unfairly and inaccurately concluded that Kootenai Medical Center is somehow at fault in this child’s death.”
Erbland said KMC treats anyone, regardless of whether they have insurance coverage.
“The loss of a child causes such pain in a family that they naturally look for some cause that can be laid at someone else’s feet and that simply is wrong here,” Erbland said.
Lacey, who is 26 and pregnant, said she was at a checkup on Jan. 23 when her obstetrician observed that Riley was “pale and sick.” Lacey said they went next door to see a pediatrician.
The doctor’s office wouldn’t see Riley because her Medicaid coverage was pending, Lacey contends.
The doctor was not in his office Friday and could not be reached.
Lacey said nurses in the office advised her to keep Riley warm and make sure she stayed hydrated.
On Jan. 25, with Riley’s condition worsening, Lacey said she took her daughter to the KMC emergency room. She said the doctor spent just a couple of minutes with Riley and only took her blood pressure. Lacey said she was sent home and told to give Riley fluids.
Three days later, Lacey left Riley with her husband at their Spirit Lake home and drove to Chewelah, Wash., to drop off her stepchildren. When she got back that evening, she found a note on the door.
“It said, ‘Say your prayers and come to the ER,’ ” Lacey said. “I got there, and she was already gone.”
Lacey said she held her daughter in her arms until the early morning hours. She said she has spent every day since crying for her lost daughter.
“She was an active, ornery little girl, spirited,” Lacey said. “She was just an awesome, awesome girl.”
Lacey said she’s not speaking out because she wants money. She said she believes her daughter could still be alive if the doctors had “given her five minutes.”
“I don’t want to see this happen to another mother,” she said. “They need to check these children whether they have money or not. It’s not their fault if their parents don’t have money.”