A lawsuit has been filed in the late 2022 death of a local toddler.

The Madison-St. Clair Record reported that a lawsuit was filed recently in St. Clair County Circuit Court against Dr. Anthony Truong and Red Bud Regional Hospital, also known as Deaconess Illinois Rural Health Clinic Red Bud, alleging medical negligence in connection with the November 2022 death of 21-month-old Ozzy Embrich of Red Bud. 

According to the complaint, the Embrich family claims Ozzy was brought to the hospital’s emergency department on Nov. 28, 2022, and was suffering from Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome and possible sepsis. However, Embrich was prescribed Tamiflu and then discharged. 

The next morning, Emrich was found non-responsive and pronounced deceased.

The family seeks monetary relief of more than $50,000.

In a December 2022 article, Ozzy’s father Corey Embrich told the Republic-Times that his son had a 104-degree fever and was passing out at home, so they took him to the hostpital. There, Ozzy was swabbed “for RSV, for COVID and for the flu, and they said everything came back negative, so they were just gonna send us home and told us just to keep giving him Motrin and Tylenol, just alternating,” the father said.

Embrich added that after mentioning that one of Ozzy’s older sisters had been sick with the flu recently, the doctor also prescribed Tamiflu.

“We just kinda kept alternating the medicine every about four hours or so just to keep his fever down,” Embrich told the Republic-Times. “And he was playing, riding his bike that night, and the next morning I was already at work and my wife calls me and it was just, I rushed home as fast as I could.”

The family alleges the defendants failed to adequately diagnose Ozzy’s condition and failed to read his positive SIRS test result. 

The plaintiff also alleges the defendants failed to order the necessary tests or X-rays, failed to adequately treat Ozzy, and failed to refer him for examination by a pediatrician.