Two parents are furious after their doctor allegedly dropped one of their newborn twin girls on her head only seconds after she was born. Derrick and Monique Rodgers from Chandler, Arizona, were horrified as they watched the drop happen, and dad Derrick happened to catch the alarming event on video. But what is worse is that the parents claim they have yet to receive an apology from their daughter's hospital. They also says she's now suffering from unusual symptoms that they worry is connected to the way she was mishandled after birth.
Video of the horrific accident appears to show the Rodgers' daughter Morgan fall only seconds after being born.
The day was meant to the happiest moment of Monique and Derrick's lives, their twin daughters were going to be born on Valentine's Day — the same day Derrick proposed years before. But as ABC 15 reported, the parents were infuriated after an unidentified doctor at Chandler Regional Medical Center dropped one of the twins, Morgan, a tiny preemie who only weighed 3 pounds and 4 ounces. As the girl tumbled from her doctor's hands, a nearby nurse managed to catch the girl and keep her from falling off the table. The save was made in seconds, but to Derrick, who was recording the incident as it happened, the fall seemed to last a lifetime.
“It made me so mad. Like, I had to stop recording,” he said.
“I kind of promised myself that I would never watch that video again,” his wife said. “I feel like she was treated like a sack of potatoes.”
Derrick confronted his wife's doctor, but said that he received no response when he questioned how the terrible slipup had been made.
Derrick explained that when he later questioned the doctor who dropped his daughter, he was met with silence.
“I told him, ‘You dropped my baby,’” the dad said. “He had like a nonchalant look on his face. Then I showed him the video, and he had nothing to say after that.”
Morgan then spent 12 days in the NICU, reported AZ Family, and though Monique was excited to finally bring her home, she noticed that her daughter was shaking and took her to a new doctor to be checked.
"She does this like tensing up and her body kind of shakes,” Morgan told ABC 15.
Morgan's new doctor noticed something disturbing on her chart. Apparently, an ultrasound had been ordered for the girl five days after her birth because of her low birth weight, but the results showed that Morgan had a grade 1 brain hemorrhage — something neither parent had been made aware of.
"No matter how small it is, I should've been notified that she was having an ultrasound done. I should've been notified of the results," she said.
And because the original hospital has been so quiet on the matter of their daughter's health, the parents are left to suspect that the fall might be the cause of their daughter's injury.
An OBGYN who did not treat Morgan was consulted about the incident and told AZ Family that though her parents might be concerned, this type of hemorrhaging is common in premature newborns even if she hadn't been dropped on her head.
"It's certainly not abnormal, in fact, pretty common in low birth weight babies," Dr. Greg Marchand explained, though he was disturbed by the way Morgan was handled when he viewed footage of the incident.
"I did see the video and it was pretty disturbing," he said. "When you know that a mistake has happened, it is common practice to admit it as quickly as possible and give full disclosure to the family."
Now the parents are speaking out, hoping to get answers and a response from the doctor they are holding responsible.
Frustrated, the parents posted video of their daughter's spill on Facebook, where it was viewed more than 100,000 times in 24 hours. They still, however, have had no apology from Chandler Regional Medical Center.
“You know, an apology when it happened could’ve gone a long way,” Monique told ABC 15.
The parents also explained that they want to know if their daughter's shaking is permanent. "I would like to know if this was due to her having a low birth weight or if it was due to her being dropped on her head," she said.
A statement given by a representative for the hospital offered no answers to the Rodgers' problem:
Because of patient privacy laws and a request from the family not to release information, we are unable to comment specifically on this matter. The safety of our patients and their families is always our top concern. The medical team at Dignity Health Chandler Regional Medical Center takes this matter extremely seriously and is working to conduct a comprehensive review.
"As a mother, you're supposed to be your child's protector, and I felt like I couldn't do that, that day," Monique told AZ Family.
For now, the parents will have to wait for more answers about their baby's health. Morgan is scheduled to see a neurologist in August.
