The wrongful death lawsuit filed in Florida over the death of two-year-old De’Markus Page outlines a sequence of events that began with a simple medication error and escalated into a fatal medical emergency. His mother, Dominique Page, alleges that her son’s death was entirely preventable and the direct result of a series of failures at UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville.
The case has drawn significant attention due to the seriousness of the alleged error, the nature of the oversight across multiple levels of care, and the profound consequences for the young child who had been admitted for a treatable condition. De’Markus Page had been transferred to the teaching hospital on 3 March 2024 after presenting with dangerously low potassium levels.
According to the lawsuit filed on 6 November, the medical team was expected to correct the imbalance through routine interventions. Instead, the filing states that the staff “fumbled” his treatment from the outset, beginning with a mistake in the very prescription intended to stabilize him. The situation quickly devolved into a medical crisis that left the toddler with catastrophic brain and organ injuries before he died less than two weeks later, on 18 March.
His mother, who spoke publicly about her loss, said she was never given a clear explanation for what happened during the days her son was kept on life support. The lawsuit is the first comprehensive account she has received, outlining allegations of negligence not only by an individual physician but by the broader clinical system responsible for double-checking and approving pediatric medication orders. She is now seeking at least $50,000 in damages from UF Health Shands, the University of Florida, and several staff members.
Prescription Error and Digital Warning Signals
According to the filing, the error began when Dr. Jiabi Chen intended to prescribe 1.5 mmol of potassium phosphate for De’Markus Page. Instead of entering the correct value, the lawsuit claims the doctor mistakenly entered 15 mmol twice daily—effectively delivering a ten-fold increase in dosage on top of the potassium supplementation the toddler was already receiving. The lawsuit describes this as the result of “deleting a critical decimal point,” creating an “exceedingly high” order for a child of De’Markus’s age and condition.
The hospital’s digital prescription system reportedly flagged the dosage as dangerous, issuing what the lawsuit describes as a “Red Flag” warning. Despite this alert, the filing alleges that pharmacists and supervising clinicians approved the order without correction. The lawsuit argues that a functioning system of clinical oversight should have identified the discrepancy immediately, given that decimal-based dosage errors are widely recognized as one of the most severe and preventable medication mistakes in pediatric care.
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De’Markus Page received his first dose earlier in the day and a second at 8:28 p.m. The excessive potassium then caused him to go into hyperkalemic cardiac arrest at 9:02 p.m., according to the lawsuit. Hyperkalemia, a dangerously high level of potassium in the bloodstream, can stop the heart within minutes if not promptly recognized and treated. The filing contends that medical staff failed to identify the cardiac arrest immediately, delaying the response to the critical emergency.
Critical Delays and Prolonged Resuscitation Efforts
The lawsuit outlines further breakdowns in emergency intervention after the cardiac arrest occurred. It alleges that the medical team took more than 20 minutes to successfully intubate the child. During this time, De’Markus Page was deprived of adequate oxygen, a factor that can cause irreversible damage within minutes. The filing states that this prolonged lack of oxygen led to “catastrophic” injury to his brain and other organs.
Though his heart was eventually restarted, the consequences of the delayed response had already taken hold. According to the lawsuit, he suffered seizures and required intensive life support measures throughout his extended hospitalization. His condition did not improve in the days that followed. Physicians ultimately informed his family that he would not recover from the extensive neurological injuries.
De’Markus Page remained in the ICU for nearly two weeks, dependent on a ventilator and continuing to experience severe complications. His mother said she repeatedly asked for explanations and updates, but received only vague or incomplete information about the sequence of events leading to her son’s deterioration. On 18 March, he was removed from life support and died at the hospital.
The lawsuit describes this period as a “horrific and protracted hospital course,” detailing his decline following what the family argues should have been a routine correction of low potassium levels. The filing asserts that each step in the chain—from the original prescription to the failure to override the alert to the delayed recognition of cardiac arrest—represented a preventable opportunity to avert the fatal outcome.
Legal Proceedings and Allegations of Gross Negligence
The wrongful death lawsuit filed by Dominique Page names UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital, the University of Florida, and multiple staff members as defendants. Her attorney, Jordan Dulcie, described the care as “grossly negligent,” arguing that the hospital failed to meet even the basic standard of pediatric medical practice. According to Dulcie, the decimal point error alone should have been immediately caught by multiple layers of oversight, including the hospital’s electronic medical record safeguards and the pharmacy verification system.
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The claim seeks damages of at least $50,000 for negligence and related wrongful death actions. While the legal amount is modest in comparison to typical pediatric malpractice cases, the filing emphasizes the pursuit of accountability more than financial restitution. The lawsuit aims to demonstrate where the system failed and how the fatal sequence of events was allowed to progress unchecked.
UF Health declined to comment directly on the allegations, citing HIPAA regulations and patient privacy obligations. In a statement provided to local news outlet WCJB, the hospital said, “UF Health is committed to protecting the privacy of all patients and their families and follows all state and federal HIPAA regulations. We cannot release information on patients or possible patients and their treatment without consent.”
The lawsuit will likely involve detailed examination of the hospital’s electronic ordering system, pharmacy review protocols, clinical supervision procedures, and emergency response actions. Pediatric medication errors involving potassium are among the most closely scrutinized in hospital environments due to the known risk of life-threatening arrhythmias. Decimal point errors, in particular, are widely recognized in clinical literature as a major source of preventable pediatric harm, which will place emphasis on whether standard safeguards were followed.
The case also raises broader questions about training, staffing, and system oversight in teaching hospitals, where residents and attending physicians share responsibility for high-volume patient care. Dr. Chen, identified in the lawsuit, was part of the medical team responsible for managing the correction of De’Markus Page’s potassium levels. The allegations assert that at least three separate layers of hospital review—the prescribing physician, supervising clinicians, and the pharmacy—failed to stop the dangerous dosage from reaching the patient.
As the legal process moves forward, investigations will likely focus on documented warnings within the hospital’s internal systems, communication among staff, timing of interventions, and whether procedures designed to prevent such errors were adequately followed. The case has already prompted significant public discussion about medication safety in pediatric emergency settings and the importance of error-prevention technology.
Dominique Page has stated publicly that the loss of her son has left her without answers for months. She said her repeated attempts to understand what occurred were met with uncertainty from the clinical staff. The lawsuit represents her first detailed account of the allegations surrounding his care and the final days of his life.