A MOTHER is blaming a hospital for the death of her infant child after hackers hit it with a devastating cyber attack.
Teiranna Kidd, of Alabama, says her nine-month-old daughter died because the hospital where she was born continued to operate despite a cyberattack that left its systems “ineffective and inoperable”.
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Teiranna has filed suit against Springhill Medical Centre claiming it did not disclose that its computer systems had been crippled by the attack.
She alleged that the hack resulted in diminished care that resulted in the baby’s death.
Springhill was deep in the midst of a ransomware attack when Nicko Silar was born July 17, 2019.
The resulting failure of electronic devices meant a doctor could not properly monitor the child’s condition during delivery, according to the lawsuit.
Left with severe brain injuries and other problems, the baby died last year after months of intensive care at another hospital.
The lawsuit, initially filed in Mobile County in 2019 while Nicko was still alive, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
The malpractice lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of money from the hospital and Dr. Katelyn Braswell Parnell, who delivered Nicko.
It contends Springhill did not reveal the severity of the cyberattack publicly or to Teiranna.
The woman would have gone to a different and safer hospital for labour and delivery had she known what was going on, the suit claims.
Springhill has denied wrongdoing and asked a judge to dismiss the most serious part of the lawsuit.
That section contends that officials conspired to publicly create a false, misleading, and deceptive narrative about the cyberattack in a scheme that made the child’s delivery unsafe.
The hospital claimed any blame lies with Parnell, who was fully aware of the inaccessibility of the relevant systems, including those in the labor and delivery unit.
Springhill says that despite this, Parnell determined that Teiranna could safely deliver her baby at the hospital.
Under Alabama law, the hospital did not have any legal duty to provide Teiranna with details of the cyberattack, the hospital argued.
Parnell and her medical group, Bay Area Physicians for Women, denied she did anything that hurt Nicko or caused the child’s injuries and death.
Springhill released a public statement about the cyberattack the day before the child was born saying staff had “continued to safely care for our patients and will continue to provide the high quality of service that our patients deserve and expect,” WKRG-TV reported at the time.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
