An Alabama woman is suing a hospital over a ransomware cyberattack she says led to the death of her baby.
In a lawsuit filed last year in Mobile County but made headlines on Thursday, Teiranni Kidd accused Springhill Medical Center of not notifying her of the hack that disrupted its operations and said the attack shut down computers that impeded the care that doctors gave to her daughter, Nicko Silar, who died after nine months after being diagnosed with a severe brain injury. The medical center has denied the allegations, saying it is not liable for Nicko’s death, according to the Wall Street Journal .
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The medical malpractice lawsuit, which was amended after Kidd’s daughter died in April 2020, seeks an unspecified amount of money from the hospital and Dr. Katelyn Braswell Parnell, the doctor who delivered Nicko. A trial is set for November 2022. The case is believed to be the first in which a ransomware attack could be confirmed to have turned deadly.
“I need u to help me understand why I was not notified,” she texted the hospital’s head nurse, according to screenshots admitted as evidence in the lawsuit. “This was preventable.”
The medical staff failed to notice the umbilical cord was wrapped around Nicko’s neck as Kidd was giving birth, according to the lawsuit. The staff did not notice the cord because of a “lack of access to critical services and information caused by the cyberattack.”
Springhill Medical Center, which denies any wrongdoing, told the Washington Examiner that in response to the attack, and in consultation with law enforcement, it brought its affected systems back online safely and securely.
The medical center also said it is proud of the way Springhill maintained patient safety while the cybercriminal activity was addressed.
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“We stayed open, and our dedicated healthcare workers continued to care for our patients,” said Jeff St. Clair, the center’s president and chief executive officer. “We did this, of course, because our patients needed us, and we, along with the independent treating physicians who exercised their privileges at the hospital, concluded it was safe to do so.”
A spokesman said the hospital refused to pay the ransom demanded by the hackers after the attack in late July 2019. However, he declined to say how much they wanted, according to the WSJ report.