Family alleges medical negligence in death of teenager Vidor and her unborn child

VIDOR – Nevaeh Crain would have turned 20 on November 1, probably with her 1-year-old daughter in her arms to watch her blow out her candles. Instead, her parents and family celebrated her birthday among themselves, singing “Happy Birthday” to balloons Nevaeh would never see and eating cake she would never taste.

Her mother and stepfather Robert and Candace Fails are still grieving a year later.

“She was just full of life. There are so many things she wanted to do. Dare, go and see things,” said Candace Fails. “She was like my best friend.”

Nevaeh had just graduated from Vidor High School with a certificate in cosmetology months before her death. She wanted to be a hairdresser and her parents wanted to help her raise her unborn daughter, Lillian.

She would have been a wonderful mother. “She loved children,” Robert Fails said. “I know she was really excited about having a little girl.”

The Vidor teen's family blames the deaths of their daughter and unborn baby on what they call “medical negligence” on the part of two hospitals in Southeast Texas.

Nevaeh Crain's parents say she visited both CHRISTUS Saint Elizabeth Hospital and Baptist Hospital seeking help with her pregnancy in the 24 hours before her death. A year later, there is still no one to pay for the loss of her daughter and unborn granddaughter. They are pro-life, and so was Nevaeh, but a published article by ProPublica raises the question of how the Texas Heartbeat Act may have delayed life-saving care.

On the day of her baby shower, Nevaeh immediately woke up with a headache that led to nausea, fever, chills and stomach pain. Her parents say she vomited in the lobby of Baptist Hospital for four hours and their baby was not examined despite complaints of stomach pain.

“They said they gave her a throat swab,” Fails said. “She had strep, they sent her home with antibiotics.”

Nevaeh returned home, but around 3 a.m. she woke her mother complaining of increasing stomach pains and a hard stomach. This time the family went to CHRIST Saint Elizabeth.

“It was probably…about three or four hours before she was in there and they said the baby's heartbeat was good and strong,” Fails said. “They said they would discharge her even though she had a high fever and an infection and her blood pressure was still high.”

Nevaeh was home for just a few hours before rushing back to Saint Elizabeth after finding what her mother describes as “blood and white mucus” in her underwear during a trip to the bathroom. This time her baby had no heartbeat and her bleeding worsened before her mother was taken out of the room.

“I yell at Nevaeh and say, 'Please don't leave me,'” Fails said. “Please fight, be strong. Don’t leave me.”

Shortly after Candace Fails left the room, her daughter Nevaeh and her unborn granddaughter Lillian disappeared. The cause of death was sepsis.

“They came there and told me they were sorry,” Fails said. “It felt like I wanted to lie there and die with her too.”

Candace Fails says her mental and physical health has deteriorated in the year since Nevaeh's death and that the fight for justice has been a long one.

“I want them to pay for what they did to my daughter. I feel like they murdered my daughter and just got away with it,” Fails said. “I murdered my daughter and grandchild and got away with it unpunished.”

Nevaeh visited the emergency room three times over a 20-hour period before being admitted to CHRISTUS and never managed to leave the hospital.

The Fails family sat down for an in-depth article about Nevaeh's death, in which ProPublica reporters spoke with doctors and lawyers who said, “Pregnant women have been made untouchable by Texas' abortion ban.”

However, the family says Nevaeh's death is being exploited for politics as hospitals are to blame.

“I want them to take action against the Baptist and St. Elizabeth because they are responsible for her death,” Fails said.

The way I see it, regardless of the law, when a mother is screaming for help, injured and in pain, it is a doctor's job to do everything possible to save her.

The family is still grieving and looking for an attorney willing to take on their case and help their daughter and granddaughter find peace. However, they were told that it was impossible to sue the affected emergency rooms.

We have reached out to both hospitals for comment. Baptist Hospital says it cannot comment due to HIPPA violations. CHRIST makes the following statement to us:

“CHRISTUS St. Elizabeth believes the care this patient received was appropriate and compassionate at all times. However, due to HIPAA and privacy concerns, we are unable to comment further.”

KFDM/Fox 4 is working to obtain the medical records cited in the ProPublica article, which would shed more light on the family's allegations. The full interviews with Candace and Robert Fails will be available on KFDM Youtube.