Naples mother files lawsuit against Nicklaus Children’s Hospital

The day Damian Creed—her son—was diagnosed with Retinoblastoma, Sarah Hancock’s life changed drastically. From laughing with her child, to hospital stays—she was certain her life would go back to normal at some point.

“Extremely confident his life was never in danger,” she said. “Or so I thought. Those risks were never discussed.”

According to court documents, doctors at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami insisted on trying to save Damian’s eye by injecting chemotherapy drugs into the tumor, despite doctors saying, “it was the worst eye they’d ever seen.”

“It’s supposed to be really successful and in some cases, it is…but there are some cases, very advanced cases that you shouldn’t use it…and they did,” Hancock said.

After seven treatments, Damian had extreme pain, and they finally removed his eye—more than a year after his diagnosis. Initially, doctors seemed confident in the eye removal.

But his mom wasn’t convinced.

“When everything came back clear, everybody was so relieved and I just..I just didn’t feel it,” she said.

Another scan came back showing a tumor in Damian’s brain. The cancer had already spread.

Damian underwent more treatment, but ultimately died in November 2016. Believing that unnecessary procedures were performed, Hancock called a lawyer who is working on a similar case from the same hospital.

“In both cases, the eyes were removed but they were not removed in time, and by delaying the removal of the eye, it allowed the cancer to ultimately spread,” said litigation attorney Larry Burkhalter.

According to court documents, one of the doctors in the lawsuit has actually been sued for medicare fraud based on providing unnecessary medical treatments.

The hospital released the following statement:

“We are unable to comment on pending litigation. As an advocate for all children, the hospital always puts the health and safety of patients first. We are committed to offering the highest quality care. Due to this dedication to the relentless pursuit of clinical excellence, any concern regarding patient care is taken very seriously and thoroughly addressed.”

Hancock says nothing will bring her son back, but plans to use any money from the lawsuit to go back into Damian’s foundation—Team Damian—which helps kids with cancer.