Family to sue for $25 million over boy's staph death

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The family of a Brooklyn boy who died this month from an antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus infection plans to file a $25 million lawsuit against the city of New York, the family's attorney said Tuesday.

The family of Omar Rivera, 12, alleges he was misdiagnosed at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn when he was brought in for treatment.

The boy died October 14 at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center.

"You can never put a price on a life," said Derek Sells, an attorney representing the family. "But one of the things that we are required to do is to put a figure in there."

Omar's mother, Aileen, took him to the hospital after being dissatisfied with the treatment he received at a clinic, attorney Paul Weitz said. Kings County Hospital Center is part of New York City's public hospital system.

"The doctor thought he was dealing with an allergic reaction when in reality he was dealing with an infection, didn't recognize that he was dealing with an infection and ordered no tests at all -- no blood work, no blood cultures," Weitz said at a news conference.

"He knew that the boy had seen a doctor before, and that the doctor had prescribed amoxicillin, which is, of course, in the penicillin family, which is for an infection." Watch the attorney talk about what might have saved Omar's life »

The attorney said the boy had skin lesions, and the hospital treated him with Benadryl, a common anti-allergy medicine.

Omar's mother "wanted to ask our health care system, particularly in urban areas, to pay closer attention to our young people when they present with these kinds of symptoms, so that nobody else has to suffer and go through what Ms. Rivera has gone through, and that is the loss of a child," Weitz said.

Kings County Hospital Center spokeswoman Hope Mason said Omar did not show signs of a staph infection when he was brought in.

"I can confirm the child was brought to the emergency room after midnight on Friday, October 12. He was treated for non-MRSA-related conditions and was released," Mason said.

"We will be closely examining whether more could have been done to detect the infection at that time."

Omar was a seventh-grader at Intermediate School 211.

"He was a lovely boy," Aileen Rivera said. "He was a lovely son, and everybody loved him."

Omar's school informed the Health Department of the boy's death on October 19, but the agency did not determine that he died from MRSA until October 22, when lab tests were completed.

MRSA is short for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and is responsible for more deaths in the United States each year than AIDS, according to new data. The germ resists all but the most powerful antibiotics.

Some 25 percent to 30 percent of the population carry staph bacteria -- one of the most common causes of infection -- in their bodies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such infections are typically minor, but invasive MRSA infections, because they are caused by drug-resistant staph, can be fatal. E-mail to a friend

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