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Maniacal Mitch
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propublica.org
7/ LaTosha Almond was sent home despite having an open bedsore on her lower back.

Her mother described it as as large as a dinner plate, so deep that it showed bone. “It was pouring out yellow and gray pus,” she said.
Article excerpt: “I went in and asked Tosha, ‘What’s that smell, baby?’” Laster said. “She told me, ‘Ma, it’s that wound.’” Almond had a severe bedsore on her lower back. Laster described it as big as a dinner plate and so deep that she could see her daughter’s bone. “It was pouring out yellow and gray pus,” she said. “Smelling like a dead carcass on the side of the road — that’s how they sent my baby home.” A home health nurse whom Phoebe had assigned to follow up with Almond instructed Laster to get Almond back to the hospital. “The nurse told me they should have never discharged my baby with that wound,” Laster said. Almond’s medical records indicate that she underwent emergency surgery to debride the wound. The surgeons also performed a tracheotomy because her airway had narrowed, making it hard for her to breathe. Continued excerpt: Almond spent an additional three weeks at Phoebe and was discharged on June 25 with a tracheostomy tube that required regular cleaning to keep her airway open. Laster only attended school until the eighth grade and acknowledged to me that she doesn’t read or write well. She said that Phoebe did not teach her or her daughter how to manage the trach, as required for discharge. According to Almond’s medical records, she was rushed back to the emergency room three times after the trach became clogged. The first time was on June 27. Records indicate that doctors in Phoebe’s emergency room removed “a large mucus plug” and sent her home. She was back in the ER again on July 12, with another plug, which doctors removed. A few minutes before noon the next day Almond was back at Phoebe for the third and final time.
December 10, 2025 at 2:06 AM