New mother claims Dallas Emergency Department did not help baby who fell to the floor and fell into a coma after birth

A Texas mother claims a Dallas-area emergency facility failed to adequately respond when her daughter fell to the floor during a difficult birth, sending her into a coma.

Makayla Thomas arrived at Preston Hollow Emergency Room, a freestanding emergency facility in Dallas, on June 29. She was 26 weeks pregnant and had intense abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding; It was the latest development in a difficult pregnancy.

He had previously been admitted to Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas; The hospital had diagnosed him with a kidney infection and had been given antibiotics earlier that month in connection with a potentially untreated urinary tract infection.

When Thomas was admitted to Preston Hollow, she went into labor alone in the exam room while waiting for the doctor to arrive.

thomas said She pushed her baby out and the baby rolled to the floor, WFAA news station reported. When emergency service workers responded, he began recording video.

“This baby? Is he dead? Thomas asks in a video.

“It looks like…yes,” an employee replies.

Later videos show staff at Preston Hollow listening for a heartbeat and performing chest compressions on the baby, who was eventually removed from the amniotic sac. At various points in the clips, employees tell Thomas to stop recording.

Being born inside the amniotic sac is a rare and potentially dangerous condition known as “en caul” birth. It occurs in less than 1 in 80,000 vaginal births and cuts off the oxygen newborns need to survive.

Thomas was eventually transferred to a larger hospital for care and his daughter survived, but the baby remained in a vegetative state and may never recover, a condition her mother believes is linked to the difficult birth.

“I absolutely believe that if they had come into the room and started acting it out immediately when they saw it, it could have been a lot different,” Thomas told WFAA. “I feel like they failed me.”

The emergency department declined to answer specific questions from the station about Thomas’ care but said it was following state health guidelines.

Texas has the most self-contained emergency facilities in the country. According to Texas A&M University School of Public Healthaccounts for nearly a quarter of the state’s emergency room visits.

Sometimes satellite locations of larger hospital systems and sometimes freestanding facilities, these freestanding emergency rooms are designed to serve as lower-cost and more convenient alternatives to traditional emergency rooms, often treating people with lower-level health problems.

But an A&M study in Texas found that they often fill a similar role to their counterparts at larger hospitals for similar cost.

“Costs are about the same volume In hospital emergency rooms (emergency rooms), assistant professor Daniel Marthey, author of the study, told the university’s website. “

Some facilities in Texas have warned against the use of such freestanding emergency rooms, arguing that they can result in high costs for patients who are out of network and unable to provide prompt care in high-level emergencies.

“If you are experiencing a true emergency, a free-standing emergency room should transport you by ambulance to a hospital for the right level of care,” the Teachers Retirement System of Texas said. warns members. “This delays your care and costs time that can be critical to your recovery. And—in the most extreme cases—your survival.”

Thomas and her husband Joe Raising money on GoFundMe for the care of their daughter.