Family takes to heart child's precarious condition

Kambria Essie Brown was born Sept. 18, 2009, to Ikonyus S. Garvin and Ronald C. Brown III. At birth, Kambria appeared healthy, and life was filled with numerous possibilities.

At 2 months old, Kambria developed a cold. When the cold wouldn't go away, Garvin and Brown decided Kambria needed to go to the hospital. At the time, the family lived in Lexington while Kambria's grandparents, Roxanne Coleman and Ben Summers, resided in Aiken. Kambria was first taken to the hospital in Lexington, where she was transferred to Palmetto Health Children's Hospital in Columbia and treated for a respiratory infection. Coleman and Summers joined the couple at the hospital.

"She was just being treated for a cold, but she was gasping for air all night long," Coleman said. "The third-shift doctor said he wanted to move her to ICU, but they never moved her. In the morning, I asked the first-shift nurse why they didn't move us, and she said there weren't any beds and other babies were sicker. They felt they could continue monitoring her where she was."

This didn't sit well with Garvin, who insisted the baby be moved to ICU. When she was told this wasn't possible, she asked to be transferred to another hospital. She feared if Kambria needed to be moved during an emergency situation to ICU that this wouldn't happen.