Hunter
10/04/22
The State of Iowa’s Appeal Board unanimously approved a nearly $4 million settlement payment to a North Liberty couple who lost their toddler son because of a strep infection that remained undiagnosed after days of visits to University of Iowa-affiliated clinics and facilities.
The Gazette reports that Scott and Melissa Keating sued the state, UI Children’s Hospital, and Pediatric Associates in 2019 and then sued a UI nurse practitioner and UI Community Medical Services a year later for the same incident.
The circumstances surrounding Jack Keating’s death started on February 15th 2018 when his parents took him to a UI Quick Care in North Liberty. His fever and raspy breathing was then diagnosed as croup and the boy was given a steroid. His fever rose that night, and his parents took him to Pediatric Associates the next day. A physician there diagnosed him with fever and possible constipation and prescribed a laxative. His condition did not improve, and calls to an on-call nurse offered no new directions.
Jack was taken to the UIHC ER on February 17th, where doctors found no concern for pneumonia or secondary infections. His parents were told to rotate Tylenol and Ibuprofen until they boy’s illness ran its course. Two days later on the morning of the 19th, Jack was struggling to breathe and he became unresponsive as his parents drove him back to the emergency room. He went into full cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 6:49am on the 19th.
The Keatings’ suit accused the UIHC and its medical personnel of failing to diagnose the strep that eventually killed him. As part of the settlement, the couple released those that treated the boy from any liability, and the payment by the state is not to be considered an admission of liability.
UI Physicians Group will cover two-thirds of the settlement, or $2.7 million. The $1.3 million balance will be paid from Iowa’s general fund.
