LabCorp, Labratory Corporation Of America, Lab Corp New Born Permanently Scarred GILBERT Arizona

My mother and I took my newborn daughter, Eden, to LabCorp for her 5 day old PKU heal prick. I entertained my son while my mother went in with my daughter. Instead of using a regular bandage to cover the small area the lab tech used a cotton ball and coban wrap. She gave no instructions on how long to keep it on. Because her cord had not yet fallen off there was no need for bathing and because it was the first week in June and the AC kept the house cold I kept Eden in footie pajamas and swaddled to keep her happy. A day and a half later while I was changing her diaper I noticed that bandaged foot had become swollen so I quickly, but carefully took off the bandage to relieve the swelling. When I got to the final layer of wrap I could let that something was very wrong. Her skin seemed to have melted into the coban and there was a huge open wound on the front of her ankle. I called the pediatrician immediately, followed her instructions for care. At some point after 5 o'clock in the evening my husband and I decided that the baby needed some immediate attention. I brought her to the Good Night Pediatric (Urgent Care) in the area and as soon as the doctor saw the wound she informed us that it was too serious for her to care for and directed us to the emergency room. We spent a few hours in the emergency room where we were informed that coban wrap should NEVER be used on newborns because it is impossible to tell if it is wrapped to tightly and also because it is an irritant to newborn skin. They called the wound an ulcer and cleaned it, put ointment on it to treat the infection and prescribed an antibiotic ointment for use at home along with instructions for daily cleaning and keeping the area as dry as possible.
To make a long story short, my daughter, now four months old, has a very large scar across the front of her ankle that she will probably have for life. I would recommend that if you bring your baby to LabCorp you insist that they not use coban wrap on the baby. I did have to bring my daughter back there (because of insurance) for her bili test when she was recovering from jaundice. I went to a different location hoping that they would not be incompetent there, but they tried to use the wrap as well. This time I insisted that they not use it and informed them about what happened to her other ankle. The tech just shrugged and said, 'Oh, they should have told you to take it off in 10 minutes.'

Alison
Mesa, Arizona
U.S.A.