Richard Charles Rodriquez was born more than two months early and weighed a little more than 2 pounds.
Since then, Charlie has fought an uphill battle to survive. He was diagnosed with a heart condition and underwent open heart surgery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
Charlie’s mom, Holly Reyes, says, because of an allergy, Charlie was on a restricted diet and was only supposed to receive her breast milk and a supplement to boost calories. But she claims that didn’t happen.
“He was given formula by mistake,” Reyes said.
Reyes claims her son had a reaction to the formula and had to be placed back on oxygen.
Now Reyes says she is dealing with what she calls another major mistake.
“His nurse gave him someone else’s breast milk by mistake,” Reyes said.
Charlie’s parents are anxiously waiting for test results to see if their son may have been exposed to HIV or hepatitis.
“He has a lot of allergies, so we don’t know if he was exposed to anything in what he consumed,” Reyes said. “It’s very unsettling.”
NBC Bay Area reached out to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital for a response to the allegations and received this statement:
"Patient privacy regulations restrict Lucile Packard Children's Hospital from speaking about potential patient issues, and therefore we are unable to provide comment on this matter.”
Reyes said, while overall care at the hospital helped her son, she is frustrated that her son allegedly received breast milk from a stranger.
“For something like this to happen,” she said, “where was the mess up? It’s unacceptable.”
Reyes said she hopes the alleged breast milk mix-up won’t harm her son.
