A Florida family says they are horrified and traumatized days after they claim a botched epidural injection at Sacred Heart Hospital in Milton left 18-year-old Selena Gray unable to walk and in excruciating pain.

Gray's mother, Patricia Alvarado, said the family "went through hell" last week when she said her daughter's epidural catheter became lodged in her back early Wednesday morning as she gave birth to her firstborn child, Serenity.

Gray asked for the epidural to help with the pain during labor, but she and her mother told the Pensacola News Journal Monday they never imagined the ordeal that would follow the typically standard injection.

"After she delivered, they attempted to take the epidural out and they couldn't," Alvarado said during a phone interview. "Between the 48 hours that we were there, she had five doctors come in, tugging and pulling on her back, attempting to get the epidural out and they could not get it out."

Alvarado said the epidural catheter formed a knot in Gray's back, near her spinal cord, and the pain was so severe that the young mother could barely walk and had to be carried to the bathroom.

Alvarado said when a sixth doctor told the family of his plans to "yank it out," she reached her limit and decided to have her daughter and new granddaughter discharged from Sacred Heart to seek help elsewhere.

Calling 911 from her hospital bed

Alvarado said she and Gray's father demanded the two be discharged, but she said Sacred Heart doctors pushed back on the request, as Gray was just shy of the medically advised 48-hour, post-birth window under hospital care.

"We felt trapped, like, 'Wow, this is really happening,'" Alvarado said.

She claimed Sacred Heart officials went as far as to say that if Gray and her newborn daughter left, the hospital would call Florida Department of Children and Families under the guise of "child abuse."

A spokesman for Sacred Heart did not return the News Journal's multiple requests for comment Monday.

Alvarado said she resorted to calling 911 from the hospital in an attempt to have a paramedic take Gray elsewhere. She added that after initially resisting, the paramedic received the OK from his supervisor to transport Gray to Baptist Hospital, where doctors didn't feel comfortable touching the epidural lodged in Gray's back, Alvarado said.

"The head anesthesiologist at Baptist knew someone at (UF Health Shands Cancer Hospital) in Gainesville who said, 'Send her to us, we can handle it,'" Alvarado said.

A six-hour ride on her side

Early Friday morning, Baptist set up an ambulance transport for Gray, who traveled six hours on her side along with Dylan Carter, her boyfriend and the newborn's father, for the emergency procedure in Gainesville.

Gray said the Friday surgery was successful and the epidural was 100% removed. The teen returned home to Milton on Saturday, but says she's still in considerable pain.

"It's been crazy 'cause I still have a burning sensation in my hip and leg," Gray said during a phone interview Monday. "I'm kind of moving around on the walker a little bit but I'm having a lot of muscle spasms. Basically, day by day I'm trying to take it slow, 'cause every morning I wake up I just start right back over with the pain."

Alvarado posted a video to her Facebook account Sunday morning that showed Carter carrying Gray from a vehicle to Alvarado's Milton home.

Gray said doctors at Shands in Gainesville could not give her a firm timetable for her recovery, or even guarantee that she would fully recover.

"The doctor that removed the epidural just told me that this was the first time he's ever seen anything like this and he couldn't tell me really if in the future I'd have any problems," Gray said. "He couldn't even tell me 100% at all.

The News Journal reached out to Shands to learn more about the procedure and Gray's recovery, but a communications representative said the hospital could not comment on specific cases due to patient privacy laws.

'She can't even breastfeed now'

As of Monday, Gray was still barely able to walk, even with the aid of a walker, but said she does feel a bit better each day and is optimistic for a full recovery.

"There is progression, so I'm definitely excited about that," she said with a laugh.

The family's top priority right now is taking care of Gray and her newborn daughter, but Alvarado said she plans to take legal action against Sacred Heart.

"It's just more of a shock than anything," Alvarado said of the experience. "It's horrifying, and it's really traumatizing. It's very traumatizing because I've had my children there. (Gray's) dad has had his children there, and we trusted them. And they're supposed to be one of the best hospitals and now it's like, if we have a problem, we could never bring her back there again. ... If you even told her we might have to go back there she would probably start crying. It's just heartbreaking watching her."

Alvarado said that even before the incident, she had planned to have her daughter stay at her home in Milton for several weeks after Serenity's birth to take care of both of them. Alvarado said that process has become more trying than she ever could have imagined.

"She had the plan to breastfeed but toward the end (of the epidural removal) she had to have narcotics, so she can't even breastfeed now," Alvarado said. "It's just heartbreaking. It makes me want to cry."

Meanwhile, the young mother said it's difficult for her to hold a grudge against "every single doctor" she interacted with, but added she is still frustrated with the way things transpired.

"They didn't do their job properly," Gray said. "Just towards the doctors that did put the epidural in my back and didn't really know what they were doing, I am a little upset with them, but you just forgive and move on, really."

Jake Newby can be reached at jnewby@pnj.com or 850-435-8538.

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