Shanice Greene

Shanice Greene

My 22 year old niece went to her gynecologist in 2017 because she was not having regular menstrual cycles. When blood work revealed elevated prolactin levels the physician referred her to a radiology clinic for a MRI with contrast. On March 16th 2018, my niece reported to the clinic for her MRI appointment and she left there unconscious and in a coma. One week later she was declared brain dead.

The clinic’s account of what happened to her is that after administration of 10 mL of Omniscan, she started having seizures and went into cardiac arrest. For reasons that are still unclear the clinic staff failed to maintain her airway resulting in severe anoxic brain injury. By the time she was admitted to the hospital, although they valiantly attempted to save her, there was not much that they could do. MRI scans showed that she had sustained anoxic brain injury to over 90% of her brain. About 5 days into this ordeal, neurologists decided to begin titrating her off the sedation to assess her functional status. It was at that point that her brain began swelling and herniated her brain stem. She was declared brain dead about 12 hours later.

We are beyond devastated at the loss of our beautiful daughter, grand daughter and niece. She had a whole life of dreams left unattained. Initial reports indicated that someone at the clinic placed a nasal cannula on her when they noticed that she was in distress but incredulously, no one did CPR or attempted to intubate her. No one attempted to administer anything to counteract the alleged seizures or possible anaphylatic reaction. The timeline of events also point to a possible delay in calling 911 again for reasons that are at this point unclear. This was all preventable if the clinic had performed the appropriate standard of care for maintaining an airway.

As if the grief of this moment is not enough, the clinic has refused repeated attempts to engage with them for more clarity into why and how she died. The director of the clinic came to visit her on the day after she was admitted and offered nothing to us by way of explanation and since day they have put up a wall of silence even now that they are aware that she is dead.

Our hope is that this tragedy never happens to another family.

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