Des Moines hospital claims cyber-attack was to blame for boy, 3, being given ‘MEGADOSE’ of opioids while recovering from having his tonsils out
- Jay Parsi, 3, of Urbandale, had his tonsil taken out on September 30, but came back to the hospital a few days later after he continued to not eat or drink much
- On October 3, his surgeon highly recommended the little one come back to the emergency room for fluids
- While waiting for their son to receive fluids, his parents Kelley and Raj learned the hospital had suffered from a cyber-attack
- This caused the hospital to not have access to online records and other systems and had to manually order medication and dosages
- After being admitted overnight, Jay was given a steroid, as well as, Tylenol mixed with codeine, an opioid, in an accidental ‘megadose’
- He was monitored for six hours and had Narcan in his room in case his heart rate or oxygen levels decreased. He luckily had no reaction to the medication
- The hospital told the family that it was due to the hospital having to manually administer and order dosages due to the computer system being down
An Iowa boy was given a ‘megadose’ of opioids while recovering from having his tonsils taken out at a Des Moines hospital, which blamed a cyber-attack for the wrong dosage.
Jay Parsi, three, of Urbandale, had his tonsils taken out on September 30, but came back to the hospital a few days later after he continued to not eat or drink much.
On October 3, his surgeon highly recommended the little one come back to the emergency room for fluids.
While waiting for their son to receive fluids, his parents Kelley and Raj learned the hospital had suffered from a cyber-attack and certain systems had been taken offline at MercyOne Children’s Hospital, causing staff to treat patients without electronic access to records and ordering medication.
Jay was eventually admitted into the hospital overnight and was given a steroid, as well as, Tylenol mixed with codeine, an opioid, the next morning.
Later, a resident doctor came into the room to inform Kelley that her son had been given a ‘megadose’ of pain medication for his age and size. The doctor told the family that it was due to the hospital having to manually administer and order dosages due to the computer system being down, the Des Moines Register reported.
But Jay’s mom was skeptical of the excuse.
‘They never did explain how a downed computer system led to this,’ Kelley told the Register. I think they were trying to say it was written down wrong or the pharmacy read it wrong, but then, why wouldn’t anyone check?
‘It was an awful, awful experience…We didn’t know what to do.’
Jay Parsi, three, of Urbandale, had his tonsil taken out on September 30, but came back to the hospital a few days later after he continued to not eat or drink much
Jay was eventually admitted into the hospital overnight and was given a steroid, as well as, Tylenol mixed with codeine, an opioid, the next morning
Later, a resident doctor came into the room to inform Kelley that her son had been given a ‘megadose’ of pain medication for his age and size
Due to the ‘megadose’ – which was ‘five times his prescribed dose and two times his body weight’ – hospital staff equipped Jay’s room with Narcan, in case his heart rate or oxygen levels decreased.
Jay was monitored for six hours without any reaction to the medication. Kelley suspects he did not take the full dosage as Jay had fought the nurse while they had administered it.
‘I anxiously watched monitors all day but he was up talking and tolerated it well,’ the mother wrote on Instagram.
Jay was back up and running by the weekend.
DailyMail.com has contacted the family for comment.
Despite their son’s safe return home, the family said they are now ‘scared to death’ to go back to the hospital.
MercyOne became suspect to a cyber-attack on October 3 and announced it was having an ‘IT security issue.’ The incident is still being ‘investigated.’
Almost 300 hospitals have been effected by the cyber-attack, including MercyOne.
The attack caused some hospitals to divert ambulances and postpone appointments.
CommonSpirit Health – which operates MercyOne and is the second largest nonprofit healthcare system in the US – reportedly had its system attacked by ransomware. The attack affected more than 140 hospitals across 21 states.
The hospital’s systems are still currently down, according to the Des Moines Register.
MercyOne shut down its systems on October 3 as a ‘precautionary step.’
Mike Wegner is the president of MercyOne. The hospital’s systems are still currently turned off as a ‘precautionary step’
CommonSpirit has not yet revealed how patient information has been affected by the attack, but many hospitals continue to remain offline.
Brett Callow, a threat analyst with Emsisoft, told the Register a ransomware attack is the most likely answer and hospitals are keeping their systems offline to protect the data and it often takes months for a system to fully recover.
‘There are a number of groups that would have been likely to have carried out an attack like this,’ he told the outlet.
At least 15 healthcare systems – affecting 120 hospitals – have been hit with ransomware attacks this year, according to the Register.
Callow said patient and payroll information was stolen from at least 12 hospital systems.
In 2020 and 2021, more than 150 ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations occurred, which affected 1,700 hospitals.
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