Respiratory Therapy Expert Discusses Patient Death Following Intubation

This case involves a male teenager in Louisiana who underwent surgery to correct a congenital spinal defect. Post-operatively, he initially remained intubated following the surgery in order to maintain his blood oxygenation. Eventually, he was extubated after his condition appeared to have stabilized. Eventually, his blood oxygen level began to drop and a respiratory therapist arrived to provide artificial respiration. Eventually he was intubated again, and aggressive resuscitation efforts were made. Despite efforts to save his life, the patient eventually expired in the hospital.

Question(s) For Expert Witness

1. Do you routinely take care of pediatric patients?

Expert Witness Response E-008140

I have 12 years NICU experience and 9 years PICU and General Pediatric experience as well and would feel very confident opining on this case. I have worked at a 72 bed NICU as well as a 47 bed Level III NICU. Both facilities do similar respiratory treatments as those attempted in the case description above, and we use end tidal CO2 monitoring on all of our pediatric and surgical patients. In addition, we use end tidal capnography on all patients while doing this kind of surgery. I was previously an educator in an allied health program and worked with various instructors on information as well as was the director of a respiratory care department and was responsible for setup of their NICU.