EDWARDSVILLE — A mother is claiming the negligence of the medical staff at a Granite City hospital caused her child to be born with severe brain damage.
Ahvianna Wiley, a minor, by her mother and next friend, Heather Turner, filed a complaint Sept. 2 in the Madison County Circuit Court against Dr. Melvin Merritt, Granite City Illinois Hospital Company LLC, doing business as Gateway Regional Medical Center, its agents, servants and/or employees and Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation Inc., its agents, servants and/or employees, alleging medical negligence.
According to the complaint, Turner gave birth to Ahvianna on July 26, 2016 at Gateway Regional Medical Center and was under the care of Merritt. The plaintiffs allege that Ahvianna was born with hypoxia and suffered "severe brain injuries." They claim that the medical staff at Gateway "were unskilled and untrained" and the hospital failed to have physicians, surgeons, obstetricians, gynecologists, residents, interns and nurses who have a "degree of skill and learning ordinarily possessed" by these types of medical professionals.
The plaintiffs also allege that Gateway's medical staff failed to give them a "thorough examination," failed to order an ultrasound or use a "vacuum in a 'high station'" which caused "shoulder dystocia and acute profound cord compression."
They also allege the staff did not use resuscitation efforts in time and that their negligence led to loss of oxygen to Ahvianna.
The plaintiffs seek monetary relief of more than $50,000 and all other just relief. They are represented by Morgan Scroggins of The Scroggins Law Office in Granite City.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 20-L-1263