A ransomware attack led to the death of a baby delivered at an Alabama hospital that was under attack by hackers, a lawsuit says.
Teiranni Kidd, who had gestational hypertension, said she was induced on July 17, 2019 without knowing that a cyber attack at Springhill Memorial Hospital brought down the network and severely limited staff’s ability to treat patients, the court filing said.
Her daughter was born at the Mobile hospital with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. It took eight minutes for a neonatologist to arrive at the bedside.
She was diagnosed with brain disfunction caused by lack of oxygen, kidney failure, and a host of ailments.
The infant girl, named Nicko Silar, died from her injuries April 16, 2020.
Teiranni Kidd blamed her daughter's death on a cyberattack that brought down Springhill Memorial Hospital's network. Nicko Silar was born on July 17, 2019, with a brain injury
She was born at Springhill Memorial Hospital, which said it shut its network to protect data
Springhill Memorial Hospital first acknowledged the ransomware attack July 9, when it said the ‘network event’ would not affect patient care.
It said it shut down its network to protect data July 16, the day Kidd arrived to the hospital with ‘no knowledge of the effect’ the cyberattack had on operations.
Without the hospital's computer and network systems, doctors and nurses resorted to communicating via text, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing court records.
'We have no computer charting for I don’t know how long,' one manager told a nurse, according to the court papers.
'They are printing out the labs in the laboratory and sending them by paper,' texted another employee.
Another nurse sent a text, saying: 'I want to run away.'
The hospital's ‘ineffective and inoperable’ systems contributed to Nicko’s injuries and subsequent death, the lawsuit said.
Nicko was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck and died months later
The infant suffered from a host of other ailments, including kidney failure, which her
