5-Year-Old Child Dies Days After Successful Surgery; Parent Blames Hospital

A citizen named Nune Hambardzumyan, who contacted the Aurora News editorial office, states that her five-year-old daughter has died as a result of mistakes and negligence by the doctors at Wigmore Medical Center. In an interview, the child’s mother shared that her daughter had Down syndrome and suffered a spinal fracture at the age of three. The child underwent surgery due to a fracture of the second vertebra.

"I was told her condition was serious, and she needed surgery. But the surgery is performed outside because our doctors are not prepared for it. I was advised to go to Ara Antaranian, who works at this center. I went to him, and he said a doctor was coming from Switzerland to the clinic. The doctor arrived, reviewed the documents, and stated that the surgery would be serious. During the surgery, there could be respiratory complications, heart failure, even death," she recounted.

According to her, she did not agree to this risky surgery initially, but six months later, as her daughter's condition worsened, she consented to the procedure, which took place on April 20. "The surgery went well. For the first two days, the child was fine, so much so that I thought if this continued, we would be discharged soon. On the third day, the child's condition deteriorated. When she was taken down to the ward, she had mucus. They kept saying there was nothing to worry about. The child was sweating so much that I had to change her shirt constantly; she was soaked through. They performed an X-ray at their hospital but indicated that there was no problem. My child was transferred, in a semi-conscious state, with bilateral pneumonia, to St. Astvatsamayr Medical Center, where they managed to revive her. After conducting tests there, we learned that the child had bilateral pneumonia. Everything was done there, but my child could not be saved. As of today, Wigmore cannot provide an answer as to why this happened, as they do not know. I asked Mr. Antaranian why my child died when her death was unrelated to the surgery, and he could not respond to me," Nune Hambardzumyan said.

Aurora News also contacted Shahané Mnatsakanyan, the deputy director of the medical center, to hear their perspective. She first requested a written inquiry before providing some details. "The cause of the child's death was given by the pathologist. The child was not healthy, and not performing the surgery would have resulted in complications after a few months. We tried to help as much as possible," she said.

When responding to the parent's observation that the surgery was successful, she noted, "Yes, but she was a severely ill child. If you speak to the parents, you will find that every flu the child had was a significant story. Our center has no connection to the child’s death." Hambardzumyan did not respond to the question of how it was possible for the child to feel well after the surgery and then be transferred to another medical center in bad condition, nor how their medical facility was unaware of her bilateral pneumonia even after the X-ray examination. "Please send the remaining questions in writing," the deputy director concluded.