My 5-month-old infant son was self-admitted to Children’s National Hospital in April 2026 and diagnosed with infantile spasms, epilepsy, and an arachnoid cyst. ACTH treatment stopped his spasms, and several members of the neuroscience team provided excellent care.
I want to specifically thank Samantha Oseahume Alero Ojeme, RN; Anne Pelagie Sakou, RN; Tirso Tapawan Docentes Jr., RN; Quang N., RN; and Rachel B., PCT, whom I knew as Miss Rachel. Their patience, compassion, and support deserve recognition.
Unfortunately, their work was overshadowed by serious failures involving medication coordination, nursing communication, documentation, and the grievance process.
Anne Quinn Vasiliadis, NP, prescribed my son’s outpatient ACTH protocol. She told me that because my child had Medicaid, he would receive a generic brand of the medication. I found that statement inappropriate and concerning. I was also repeatedly told that the Accredo Specialty Pharmacy prescription was being handled. When I contacted Kaiser and Accredo myself, I discovered that Accredo did not have the insurance information required to process it. I personally supplied the missing information. Because having the ACTH medication available was a condition of discharge, this failure could have prolonged my infant’s hospitalization.
My primary nursing concern involved Bianca Olimpia Rouco. Despite my disclosing a severe needle phobia and arranging for my father to be trained as the second caregiver, I experienced pressure from Bianca to administer the injection myself.
The dose was not successfully administered. The medical record documents an incomplete dose and another attempt during which the needle was withdrawn, and medication was pushed outside the patient. In my experience, Bianca then focused on reporting my child’s water intake instead of immediately addressing the failed dose and obtaining a replacement. This caused me to lose confidence in her ability to continue handling my son’s medication.
I asked Claire S., the charge nurse, to assign another nurse. Her response began, “We don’t fire nurses here.” I had not asked for Bianca to be fired. I requested reassignment because of the failed injection, the pressure surrounding my needle phobia, and the breakdown in trust.
Claire also brought up ethnicity in the conversation, even though I had not mentioned race or ethnicity. She then raised allegations that a doctor was “shaken up” by my behavior and that multiple nurses were uncomfortable with me. These accusations were raised after I requested another nurse, and they did not appear in the medical record I later reviewed.
The grievance response involved Jodi Murray, Nurse Manager of the Neuroscience Unit, and Melissa Wilson, Manager of the Ombudsman Office. After nearly two months, I still did not receive direct answers about the Accredo failure, the Medicaid and generic medication statement, the incomplete ACTH dose, the ethnicity comment, the behavioral allegations, who was interviewed, or whether corrective action occurred.
I also asked whether nursing assignment logs, complete medication audit records, incident reports, or behavioral flags existed because they were not included in the 211-page medical record production. That question also remained unresolved.
This review is not directed at every person who treated my child. I remain grateful to Samantha, Anne Pelagie, Tirso, Quang, and Miss Rachel.
Parents should not have to identify specialty pharmacy failures themselves, supply missing insurance information, experience pressure surrounding medication administration, or repeatedly pursue basic answers while caring for a medically fragile infant.
Children’s National needs stronger medication coordination, respectful communication, transparent documentation, and a grievance process that clearly states what was investigated, what was found, and what will change.
