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GAINESVILLE, FL -- A three year old boy in Gainesville died after receiving an overdose of a growth hormone.

Two workers at the University of Florida Physicians Pediatric Outpatient Clinic are on administrative leave as a result.

The family of Sebastian Ferrero talked to the media today in Gainesville about the incident along with doctors and representatives of UF Pediatric Clinics, Shands at UF, and UF's Faculty Group Practice.

The family says doctors gave their son 60 grams of arginine instead of 5.75 grams to test for his low growth rate. Arginine is used to see how much growth hormone is being produced by the pituitary gland.

This happened on October 8. The boy received the injection during the day. Later that night, he went to the emergency room before getting transferred to Shands at UF two days later with swelling on his brain. Ferrero died the next day after being taken off life-support.

A nurse and a pharmacist have been placed on administrative leave.

Former UF nurse stands accused of murdering Suwannee High grad

By Jeff Waters, Democrat Reporter

The trial of a former nurse accused of murdering Suwannee High grad Michelle Herndon began Monday in Gainesville with jury selection and will likely last late into the week.

Herndon, 24, was killed by a lethal dose of an anesthetic in 2005. Oliver Travis O’Quinn, 29, a registered nurse at Shands UF at the time, was later arrested in Africa for the murder.

Herndon’s body was found in an apartment in Gainesville on Nov. 10, 2005. Authorities first thought Herndon died of natural causes but later found a puncture wound in her arm. An autopsy determined she died from a lethal dose of a powerful anesthetic. Gainesville police said O’Quinn injected Herndon with the drug.

Authorities say O’Quinn was infatuated with Herndon, who already had a boyfriend.

O’Quinn resigned from Shands UF shortly after Herndon’s death and fled to Ireland. On June 21, 2006, U.S. Embassy officials caught him trying to wire money from Mauritania, in western Africa.

O’Quinn was able to elude authorities but was later caught in Senegal, south of Mauritania. He was extradited to New York in July 2006 and was eventually returned to Gainesville in October 2006.

The journey started with Percocet, a mainstay in post-operative pill-popping that Diane Dearstine said she needed to melt the pain of shoulder surgery and a car accident. Four years later she found herself in the Duval County jail, admittedly embarrassed and somewhat traumatized at what had happened. She'd become addicted to painkillers and used her position at Shands Jacksonville to continue scoring pills, namely oxycodone, when her prescriptions were empty.

An outside expert in pediatric infectious disease has been chosen to review the findings of an investigation into a cluster of fungal infections that developed in a group of young cancer patients being treated last summer and fall at Shands AGH.

Shands physician is facing several criminal charges stemming from an incident in which police said he strangled a former girlfriend and threw her into a pool, and a temporary injunction has been filed against him by the ex-girlfriend, according to records

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Two months ago, Thomas Stewart says he was rushed to Shands Jacksonville.

He needed emergency surgery to remove part of a brain tumor. "I lost my vision, and that's when I knew there was something seriously wrong," says Stewart.

After surgery, Stewart spent weeks in the hospital. His family says at first everything seemed to be fine.

"When his medication was changed, it all went out of sight. He was paranoia, hallucinating, extreme agitation," says his mother, Sandra Persinger.

Stewart says he remembers the weird feelings, and after going home, those feelings were still around. Stewart went back to the ER for help.

On that trip to the hospital, he says doctors decided to Baker Act him for mental illness. But before he realized what was going on, he says there was a confrontation.

"I didn't know what was going on, if I was being attacked by a thug or what," says Stewart.

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A First Coast hospital is admitting it could have done more to protect its patients after two violent attacks that started in the hospital's parking areas.

Dad faults hospital in UF death
Eraste Autin's father says Shands cost son his life, may sue. Hospital says it acted properly.
GAINESVILLE -- Nearly one year after the death of Florida football player Eraste Autin, his father says he is convinced improper medical care at Shands at the University of Florida, Gainesville, led to his son's death, and the matter could be settled in the courtroom.

Web sites and blogs critical of companies are proliferating. Some are more effective (and well -reasoned) than others, but their muckraking goals are the same: Expose perceived problems.

ShandsSucks.com webmaster featured in this article which was published by the Florida Times Union

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