HONOLULU, HI – Ava Agbayani, a 4-year-old child constantly hospitalized due to chronic health conditions, has tragically died. Her father, Tyson, accuses the hospital of negligence. He blamed Ava’s untimely demise on low-quality care and lack of attention due to temporary staff shortages.
Ava was taken to Kapiolani Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Saturday after a cold she had developed escalated into pneumonia. However, Tyson recounts a six-hour wait to get Ava a room, followed by another hours-long wait the next day as her health deteriorated, while the staff scrambled to find someone to care for her in the intensive care unit.
Expressing his frustration, Tyson recounted how Ava’s alarms were ignored and he had to suction Ava’s mouth himself when her oxygen stats dipped. He also had to change her diapers, stating, “If I didn’t change it, nobody else was going to.”
According to Tyson, Ava, who suffered from chronic lung disease, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy, was not given the urgency her condition required by the nurses currently assigned to her, whom he described as “just bodies in the room.”
Tyson believes that the lack of proper care contributed to Ava’s premature death on Tuesday. Kapiolani Hospital expressed condolences for the family’s loss, stating, “We are continuing to investigate, but at this time we have no reason to believe that what happened was due to the quality of care at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children.”
However, Tyson attributes Ava’s untimely death to the lack of professional attention she received. “She had so much left. It wasn’t her time. I just feel like she was set so far back,” he said.