An investigation has revealed an increase in rates of death and complications among pediatric cardiology patients at he Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital located in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Many of the parents whose children were treated at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital say that children died or suffered significant complications after undergoing heart surgery at the Florida hospital.

According to the Baltimore Sun, a growing number of parents have reported problems with their children’s overall health following what were supposed to be minor procedures. Some parents have even lost their children and believe that these are instances of medical malpractice that could have been prevented.

Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital was connected with a higher rate of complications and death for young heart patients, according to an investigation of 10 years of records carried out by the Tampa Bay Times. The Heart Institute located at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital was dedicated to children who suffer from heart defects.

The hospital touted its prestige and the growth in size in recent years after being acquired by Johns Hopkins. Unfortunately, as interviews from parents revealed in conjunction with billing records, instances of mistreatment and medical negligence were far too common. Many of the parents reportedly did not realize that reports of serious complications and fatalities at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital with young patients had spiked in recent years.

Some children undergoing relatively non-complex procedures reportedly sustained preventable complications, such as infections.

Other problems reported by parents of children who underwent heart procedures at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital included failing patches for holes in tiny hearts, bursting sutures, and needles lost inside infants during surgical procedures. The child who had the needle left inside her after surgery had to go through emergency surgery after the child’s primary care pediatrician alerted the parents to the problem.

According to the Tampa Bay Times exposé, parents and medical professionals say that there’s an internal issue with the hospital contributing to these higher complication rates and that this is something that should be addressed before any other children suffer or before any parents have to lose their loved ones in procedures that should have minimal side effects.

The mortality rate for heart surgery patients located at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in Saint Petersburg reportedly tripled between 2015 and 2017. These data points made Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital home to the highest mortality rate for heart surgery patients throughout Florida.

Some of the parents allege that these complications and potential errors were hidden from them, although they were later identified through careful medical record review or through an autopsy.

Many of these parents selected the hospital due to its connection with the highly respected Johns Hopkins location in Baltimore. Parents who lost their children say that they lost their young infants even after procedures that they were told were relatively low risk. Some of the children who survived these procedures have severe physical and mental limitations after sustaining damage from conditions such as strokes.

Parents whose children may have been harmed by medical malpractice at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital may qualify for a lawsuit investigation.