DAWSON SPRINGS, Ky. (WEHT)- After a deadly tornado tore through Dawson Springs in December of 2021, the youngest victim’s family is still fighting for justice.
On December 10, 2021, Jackie Koon and her family took shelter in her mother’s house.
“I don’t remember too much, but I do know that me and the baby in the car seat, Oaklynn, both flew over the house next door,” says Shelia Rose, Koon’s mom.
The twister picked up the family and dropped them in different spots in the debris. Rose and the two month old were found 100 feet away from where they initially took shelter and were taken to the hospital. Within 10 hours, Koon says Oaklynn was discharged. Koon took a picture of Oaklynn after the tornado and says the baby’s eyes were glazed and her face was swollen.
“They did not take blood, they did not take urine, they did not do a CT with contrast, and the MRI machine was broke down,” Koon says.
Koon says Oaklynn’s health quickly declined. After being sent for a third hospital, a children’s hospital in Louisville, Koon got a call.
“They immediately put me in a room and I knew that something was wrong,” Koon says.
Doctors found a brain bleed and say Oaklynn had a stroke, which Koon says could have been prevented at the first hospital.
“I mean if she was monitored for at least 24 hours, because her aneurism was at 22 hours, they could have caught it when she was at the hospital,” Koon says.
Although Koon says she did not want an autopsy, she thinks her daughter’s injury was caused by shaking.
“If I came in here and said hey someone shook my baby, they would have monitored her and sent her to a children’s hospital. But for Oaklynn just being shook around by an EF4, they just discharged her,” Koon says.
Koon wants to make sure what happened to her family does not happen to anyone else. She calls it Oaklynn’s Law and wants hospitals to be required to keep young children for monitoring after any kind of major trauma, including natural disasters. She says she has a petition and plans to write to Governor Andy Beshear in the coming weeks. Her petition can be found here.
