A Florida family is accusing a major children’s hospital of causing the death of their 2-year-old son after he was allegedly given 10 times the prescribed dosage of a medication due to a deleted decimal point. According to a lawsuit filed this month, De’Markus Page was admitted to UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in March 2024 for treatment of a virus.
The teaching hospital is affiliated with the University of Florida. The legal complaint, obtained by Law&Crime, described De’Markus as an active child with minor developmental and speech delays and “suspected of having some level of autism.” Relatives said he remained “underweight in the 30th percentile” because he was a selective eater.
They added that his nutritional challenges made him more susceptible to dehydration and electrolyte imbalances during common childhood illnesses. The lawsuit states that De’Markus was initially prescribed “1.5 mmol” of potassium phosphate twice per day.
On his second day in the hospital, however, a doctor allegedly entered an incorrect order that increased the dosage tenfold after “a critical decimal point” was deleted. The filing argues that this error was especially dangerous because the child’s potassium levels had already returned to normal earlier that morning, a detail the physician “failed to recognize or blatantly ignored.”
The mistake reportedly went unnoticed by the hospital staff. Shortly after receiving the medication, De’Markus began to suffer the effects of severe potassium overload. According to the complaint, he entered a “hyperkalemic state” and went into cardiac arrest, which the lawsuit claims was not detected for “at least 20 minutes.”
Once staff realized what was happening, they reportedly struggled to secure an airway. The complaint alleges that doctors attempted intubation multiple times before succeeding, further delaying treatment. “De’Markus was reported to have a spontaneous return of circulation and cardiac activity, but the anoxic damage already done to his brain and other vital organs was catastrophic,” the lawsuit said.
The family described the following two weeks as a “horrific and protracted hospital course” in which the toddler remained ventilator-dependent and severely neurologically impaired in the pediatric intensive care unit. Nearly two weeks after he was admitted for what began as a routine viral illness, De’Markus died from the injuries tied to the medication error, according to the lawsuit.
The family is seeking accountability from the hospital and the medical staff involved. UF Health Shands has not publicly commented on the allegations.