Hospital Error: Three Quadruplets Die, One Develops Cerebral Palsy

A San Antonio mother is suing a hospital whose error has allegedly resulted in the death of three of four quadruplets, and the development of cerebral palsy in the last. The hospital also lost the three dead babies' bodies for nearly three days.

“I couldn't believe that … I was going to have quads,” said Linette Ballestero. “I'm an only child, so all of a sudden having quads and a 2-year-old was shocking.”

Ballestero knew that quad pregnancies are high-risk, so she took extra precautions to ensure her babies' good health. She checked into Christus Santa Rosa hospital five and a half months before her due date.

She began having contractions only 18 weeks into the pregnancy, but her doctors assured her that the babies were all healthy with strong heartbeats.

She started feeling severe pain at around 29 weeks. “I knew that something was going wrong, and I started telling doctors and nurses I knew something was going wrong,” said Linette.

Hospital records acknowledge that Ballestero was “crying and worried,” and that later, she was “moaning in pain,” and “screaming.”

Ballestero felt a “tearing” inside her which felt nothing like labor pains. “It was beyond labor. It was excruciating to the point where I was begging them to deliver the babies,” Ballestero said. Doctors told her to bear it out.

Three days after she first began complaining of the pain, Ballestero's condition worsened, and she was not urinating.

It was not until this point that a doctor ordered tests. Ballestero underwent emergency surgery to remove her babies. The doctors then found a laceration in her liver.

When she woke up in intensive care, she did not have her babies. All four of them were born with still hearts. Doctors revived two of them, but one of them died six days later. The remaining child, a boy named James, had suffered severe permanent brain damage, and developed cerebral palsy. He was also legally blind.

The dead babies' bodies accidentally went out with the laundry and were missing for nearly three days before they were returned from a laundry facility nine miles away.

Ballestero is suing Dr. Alka Arya-Degaetano, Dr. Ricardo Munoz, Jr., Riverwalk OBGYN, and Christus Santa Rosa for an undisclosed amount. She claims that the hospital staff failed to diagnose her condition, which led to the deaths of three of her children, and the development of cerebral palsy in the fourth.

Does your child suffer from cerebral palsy? If you feel your child's cerebral palsy may have resulted from medical malpractice, please contact us today for a free case evaluation with a caring and experienced cerebral palsy attorney who can help you recover the compensation you may be entitled to.