A recent investigation from CNN found that St Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach has three times the national average of infant deaths following heart surgery. Their death rate is over 12 percent. That’s unacceptable.
And it’s also unacceptable to the Florida Department of Health, which investigated this last year and issued a recommendation (a “suggestion”) that they not do heart surgery on any infants younger than 6 months. This suggestion hasn’t been followed by the doctors at St Mary’s, who continue as they have before.
Having an infant with a congenital heart problem is, well, heartbreaking for the parents. Decisions for surgery are sometimes made under very emotional circumstances. But, as a matter of life or death for your little one, you might want to have it done at a different hospital, at least until St Mary’s get’s its act together.
