Advertisement

Heartbroken: Despite warnings, All Children's kept operating. Babies died.

The family of Leslie Lugo Tellez stands by her grave in Plant City, Florida on September 3, 2018. Leslie Lugo Tellez  was born on January 2, 2017 Tampa General Hospital with down syndrome and a risk for heart problems. She died on May 30, 2017 at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.  EVE EDELHEIT   |   Times
The family of Leslie Lugo Tellez stands by her grave in Plant City, Florida on September 3, 2018. Leslie Lugo Tellez was born on January 2, 2017 Tampa General Hospital with down syndrome and a risk for heart problems. She died on May 30, 2017 at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. EVE EDELHEIT | Times
Published Nov. 30, 2018

Times reporters spent a year examining the All Children's Heart Institute — a small, but important division of the larger hospital devoted to caring for children born with heart defects.

They compared Florida's 10 pediatric heart surgery programs by analyzing a state database of 27 million hospital admissions. Then they reviewed thousands of pages of medical reports, interviewed current and former hospital workers, spoke with top health care safety experts and tracked down families across Central Florida coping with catastrophic outcomes.

They discovered a program beset with problems that were whispered about in heart surgery circles but hidden from the public.

Read the investigation here.