Family plans to sue after 9-year-old dies following routine tonsillectomy

A Detroit family is demanding answers after their 9-year-old daughter died within hours of having a tonsillectomy— the third most common childhood procedure, with 530,000 operations performed per year.

The Detroit News reported that Sonia Gambrell plans to sue Detroit Medical Center, which owns  Children’s Hospital of Michigan, where her daughter Anyialah Greer underwent the surgery on Dec. 8 prior to suffering cardiac arrest.

Although autopsy results aren’t expected for weeks, medical reports suggest an obstructed airway, an undetected heart condition, or anesthesia complications may have left Greer at risk, the news website reported.

Gambrell alleges the ear, nose and throat specialist who performed the surgery, Dr. Bianca Siegel, wrongfully discharged her daughter because she was not in stable condition post-surgery.

“Under federal law, you can’t discharge people unless they’re in stable condition. I don’t know how she could be considered stable when she died just hours after discharge,” James J. Harrington IV, a partner with Fieger Law of Southfield who specializes in medical malpractice, whom the family hired for representation, told the Detroit News. “What was the anesthesiologist doing? What happened in the OR? What did the nurses know? As far as I’m concerned, every single person who looked at this kid has to answer questions. I am furious about this.”

Gambrell, meanwhile, told the news website she wishes she had kissed her daughter before she went into the operating room for what was supposed to be a 40-minute procedure.

“I still feel like I’m dreaming,” she told the news website. “Like, ‘Where is my daughter?’ Someone is going to come up and tell me it’s all over. That this was a mistake. She can’t die from something they do every day.”