Infant nearly dies after doctors fail to tell family she has fatal liver disease, lawsuit claims
At just two months old, Mattie Beacham was a ticking ‘time bomb,’ her parents say.
The infant, from Florida, had been struggling to gain weight since she was born. At just 5lbs, she was hooked up to 21 different machines to keep her organs from giving out.
Mattie was in complete organ failure, which her parents claim in a lawsuit could have been prevented had the hospital told them their daughter had an aggressive liver condition.
Mattie’s birth on December 13, 2022, via c-section had been uneventful, and doctors discharged her with a clean bill of health three days later after she passed her newborn screening tests, the complaint, reviewed by the Daily Mail, alleges.
Allison Beacham, Mattie’s mother, told the Daily Mail: ‘We thought we had a healthy baby girl. Everything was fine, except that she wasn’t growing.’
Despite constantly drinking high-calorie formula, Mattie failed to gain weight, but her abdomen swelled with fluid, a condition called ascites, the complaint alleges. As the weeks went on, her stools turned clay-colored and her skin yellowed.
Mattie’s parents claim doctors at Orlando Health insisted she just needed to eat more. When they took her to her two-month appointment on February 13, 2023, a pediatrician filling in allegedly ‘turned ghost white,’ Mattie’s parents said.
When Mattie Beacham (pictured above) was born in December 2022, doctors thought nothing was out of the ordinary. However, she had a deadly liver condition that went undetected for two months, a lawsuit claims
Mattie is pictured as an infant. The complaint states her pediatrician was concerned about her failure to thrive
The complaint states that the pediatrician ‘was concerned with a failure to thrive, jaundice and liver enlargement.’
It states Mattie was taken to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, part of Orlando Health, later that day, where doctors diagnosed Mattie with biliary atresia, a severe disease in newborn babies that causes the liver’s bile ducts to become blocked.
Bile, which the liver produces to carry waste to the intestines, builds up and prevents the body from absorbing essential nutrients.
Affecting one in 12,000 infants in the US, the only treatment for biliary atresia is surgery, called a Kasai surgery, to remove blocked bile ducts.
The complaint states: ‘The Kasai procedure has the best chance of success if done before 30-45 days of life, and ideally by 30 days of life.
‘If the diagnosis and surgery are delayed, the chances of establishing good bile flow drop dramatically, and the risk of early liver transplantation increases.’
By the time she was diagnosed, Mattie was 63 days old, the complaint states.
Michael Beacham, Mattie’s father, told the Daily Mail: ‘This disease is a time bomb.’
The disease is diagnosed with direct bilirubin tests, which measures levels of bilirubin, a waste product from the breakdown of red blood cells, in the blood.
The complaint, however, claims the family was never made aware of the fact that their daughter had the test done three days after her birth and had received red flag warnings for biliary atresia.
The Beachams are now pursuing litigation against a doctor and nurse with Pediatrix Medical Group of Florida, which provides pediatric and neonatal care within Orlando Health, and Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, a hospital that is part of Orlando Health and is where Mattie was born had allegedly had initial liver testing done.
Orlando Health has admitted fault through Florida Statute 766.207, which caps the maximum malpractice damage costs at $250,000. The Beachams are now pursuing arbitration with the hospital, meaning the dispute will be resolved outside of court.
Pediatrix Medical Group is expected to go to trial for medical malpractice in 2027.
When approached for comment, a representative for Orlando Health told the Daily Mail: ‘Orlando Health does not comment on pending litigation.’
Given the recent service of the complaint against the physicians, which was served in December, the implicated physicians have not yet responded.
At two months old, Mattie weighed just five pounds, and her abdomen filled with fluid (pictured above) from biliary atresia
Pictured above are the 21 machines keeping all of Mattie’s organs alive while she lay in a coma
After getting the diagnosis from Orlando Health two months after Mattie’s birth, doctors at Orlando Health performed the Kasai surgery on February 15, 2023, when Mattie was 65 days old.
However, it was unsuccessful, which the complaint claims ‘was the direct and proximate result of the Defendants’ failure to timely recognize, disclose and appropriately follow up on the abnormally elevated direct bilirubin result of December 16, 2022.’
The Beachams claim they were back in the hospital off and on for two more months before being transferred to Advent Health, which was just five miles from Orlando Health.
Mattie’s biliary atresia had become so advanced that her liver could no longer send bile to her intestines to absorb nutrients, so anything doctors fed her ended up as more bile building up in her liver, the complaint alleges. This led to malnourishment.
‘She was literally getting poisoned and starved at the same time,’ Michael said.
Mattie spent 186 nights at Advent Health for monitoring of organ failure, medication and a medically induced coma. Over those weeks, she was allegedly given a zero percent chance of survival.
She also had 21 different pumps working to keep her organs alive. In late September 2023, when Mattie was nine months old, doctors estimated Mattie was 24 hours from death when she began to turn a corner.
Mattie is pictured above after her liver transplant. She was so small that the liver was cut in half and then divided two more times to fit
As Mattie’s organs failed, simply touching her skin would cause it to ooze blood, as seen above
One of Mattie’s nurses engineered a tandem machine that combined dialysis, a kidney treatment, with plasmapheresis, a procedure that separates blood plasma from blood cells to remove toxins and harmful antibodies.
The goal of combining the two machines was to make both treatments faster acting. It proved successful, and Mattie’s organs slowly began to ‘come back online,’ her parents said.
Mattie improved enough to be eligible for a liver transplant and was put on the transplant list with an estimated 36-hour window to get a new liver.
In early October, the nine-month-old received a liver from a deceased 22-year-old man in Georgia. Despite suffering from three brain bleeds, Mattie underwent the 12-hour operation.
The donated liver was split between two people, but Mattie was so small that her half still had to be trimmed twice to fit. A donated liver grows to full size within a few weeks.
‘It was almost a Hail Mary,’ Allison said.
‘Most doctors told us they didn’t believe she’d survive it,’ Michael added. ‘It was just an incredibly horrific journey.’
Mattie survived, but it would be another year before the Beachams contacted a lawyer to help sift through 27,000 pages of medical records.
The complaint alleges doctors performed tests when Mattie was three days old that showed evidence of biliary atresia.
Now three years old, Mattie has several lasting complications, including losing all of the fingers on her left hand and needing abdominal reconstruction
Allison Beacham, Mattie’s mother, told the Daily Mail: ‘She is the happiest little human I have ever known. She is so compassionate beyond her years, which dazzles me’
The direct bilirubin test measures levels of bilirubin, a waste product from the breakdown of red blood cells, in the blood.
A normal level is less than 0.3 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), but Mattie’s was 13 times above the normal range, signaling biliary atresia, the complaint, reviewed by the Daily Mail, stated.
But the complaint alleges doctors at Orlando Health never told the parents about the test and that knowing the result when Mattie was three days old could have prevented her from going into complete organ failure.
Allison said, based on the complaint: ‘The flagging, it should have happened. It is an obvious, actionable thing. They did none of that; they let us go home. And every single day Mattie was being poisoned.
‘By the time she got her Kasai [surgery], they said we didn’t have time for a second opinion because she wasn’t going to make it. She was already just so far gone,’ Allison added based on the complaint.
Now at three years old, Mattie’s traumatic ordeal has left her with a host of lasting complications, the complaint states.
Mattie’s family and doctors call her ‘Miracle Mattie,’ as she was once given just 24 hours to live. She is pictured above
Biliary atresia made Mattie unable to develop B and T cells, white blood cells that produce tumor-fighting antibodies, so she is immunocompromised and prone to developing cancer within her lifetime, particularly melanoma.
Sepsis, the body’s overreaction to an infection, also caused her to lose all of the fingers on her left hand, and the nutritional deficiencies she faced caused her teeth to not form protective enamel.
Mattie also has several developmental delays, such as impaired speech, and she has suffered three strokes.
Her family claims doctors estimate she may live to just 50 years old, 30 years less than the average American woman.
‘This kid has a lifetime of medical issues,’ Michael said.
This month, she will undergo surgery to reconstruct her abdomen, which is scarred from the transplant.
The complaint states: ‘As a further direct and proximate result of the negligence of one or more of the Defendants hereinafter alleged, [Mattie] has, in the past and will in the future and for the remainder of her life, suffer disability, great mental and physical pain and suffering, anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, loss or diminution of the ability to enjoy life; will be required to undergo various surgical and medical treatments; will be required to undergo various treatments and programs of rehabilitative therapy and/or occupational therapy; and will be obligated to spend extraordinary sums of money for her care and treatment.
‘Additionally, for the remainder of her life, [Mattie] will be unable and/or severely limited in her ability to work and earn money to support herself.’
The Beacham family is suing Orlando Health for negligence in Mattie’s case. A trial is expected to take place in 2027. Mattie is pictured above in Washington DC
Pictured from left are Michael Beacham, Mattie Beacham, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and Congressman Gus Bilirakis of Florida. The Beacham family has introduced legislation in Florida to add direct bilirubin tests to the state’s newborn screening panel
The family has introduced a law in Florida called Mattie’s Law, which aims to add direct bilirubin tests to the state’s newborn screening panel.
In a pilot program, about a dozen hospitals nationwide, including Advent Health, have added the test to their newborn screening panels.
Despite the complications, Mattie remains in high spirits.
Allison said: ‘She is the happiest little human I have ever known. She is so compassionate beyond her years, which dazzles me.
‘What astonishes me is that her awareness of what she has gone through is not there. She is a normal, happy little baby who one day will really know her journey inside out, upside down.’
