Lyndsey Sutherland cries while talking about her daughter Jasmine Vincent at Woodlawn Cemetery in Westbrook. Jasmine died in 2021 at age 15. Sutherland filed a lawsuit against Martin’s Point and Mid Coast Medical Group arguing the two failed to recognize signs of a treatable form of cancer. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer
As Lyndsey Sutherland approached her daughter’s gravesite in Westbrook, she carefully removed her shoes.
Jasmine Sky Vincent Deborah Flint
Sutherland and her daughter, Jasmine “Jazzy” Vincent, used to have picnics and long talks here, sitting barefoot and talking about the relatives who were buried there years before – including Jasmine’s older sister Autumn, who died the day she was born.
“I didn’t know after Autumn passed if I’d ever have another one,” Sutherland said Wednesday. “And then came Jazzy, and she came in like a storm. She filled my world. I never knew unconditional love until that girl came out.”
Jasmine is buried alongside her sister. She was 15 when she died on Aug. 1, 2021. The family was told at the time that she died of pneumonia. The shock of her death increased, Sutherland’s attorney Meryl Poulin said, when they discovered several days later that Jasmine actually had a type of leukemia.
Sutherland filed a civil lawsuit in in Cumberland County Superior Court on Wednesday against two southern Maine health care providers, alleging that the companies failed to properly diagnose her daughter’s cancer. Had they caught it sooner, the complaint alleges, Jasmine Vincent would still be alive.
The complaint accuses Martin’s Point, a primary health care provider in southern Maine, and Mid Coast Medical Group, now owned by MaineHealth, of being negligent and failing to provide Jasmine with adequate care.
It alleges the health care providers failed to order further testing – despite the teen’s concerning symptoms and numerous visits and calls before her death – and failed to relay important, timely information to Sutherland about Jasmine’s care.
A spokesperson for MaineHealth said in an email Wednesday that its “foremost commitment is to provide safe, high-quality care to all patients.” The company declined to answer questions regarding Sutherland’s allegations because of the open lawsuit.
Martin’s Point did not respond to a list of detailed questions about the allegations. The complaint also identifies various doctors and medical employees who treated Jasmine, but they are not included as defendants. Efforts Wednesday to reach them and to verify their employment were unsuccessful.
Sutherland is asking for a jury trial and various types of damages under the Maine Wrongful Death Act.
“This has obviously been a worst nightmare for a parent come true,” Poulin, the attorney, said. “And in many ways, Lyndsey is still living that nightmare.”
The complaint says Jasmine’s death was “senseless and completely avoidable.”
Standing beside her daughter’s grave, Sutherland struggled against tears when talking about her daughter, and how devastating the loss has been to family and friends.
“She really did love everybody and everything deeply,” Sutherland said. “If you were in her circle, you were in her circle. There’s not a second I don’t miss her.”
Sutherland declined to discuss specifics of her lawsuit, but spoke at length about the daughter she loved and misses. She often thinks about Jasmine and the busy life they shared.
She was an avid cheerleader and gymnast, having started the latter at 3 years old. She was active in her Gorham church, she had a fun and vibrant sense of fashion, she was popular at school and adored by her two older sisters, her mother said.
Jasmine had always been a healthy, active child, Sutherland said. She ate well, exercised and had a contagious energy.
But when she visited Martin’s Point in Brunswick on July 14, 2021, Jasmine was having a hard time breathing and her throat hurt, according to the lawsuit, which spells out a series of doctors visits, diagnoses and treatments she was given over the next 18 days before her death.
Dr. Sarah Sedney diagnosed Jasmine with mild asthma and a sore throat after a negative strep test. Jasmine returned a week later, her cough was worse. She was lethargic and her stomach hurt, the complaint states.
Katharine Swan Potter, a family nurse practitioner, recorded Jasmine’s “abnormally high” heart rate and blood pressure, diagnosed her with pneumonia and prescribed her antibiotics and steroids. Potter did not order further testing, according to the lawsuit.
On July 26, Jasmine met with Dr. Danielle Salhany, a gynecologist at Mid Coast Medical Group, because her breasts were now discolored and swollen, making it harder for her to breathe. The veins running from her neck to her chest were concerningly large, the complaint states.
Salhany didn’t address Jasmine’s veins, according to the lawsuit, and determined her swollen breasts were a result of the steroids Jasmine had been prescribed for the pneumonia. Salhany told Jasmine to stop taking the medication and follow up with Martin’s Point.
Sutherland did, twice, according to her complaint. On July 30, when Jasmine’s symptoms worsened, Sutherland left a message for Potter. The nurse practitioner told her staff that morning they needed to call Sutherland and tell her to bring Jasmine to the ER. But according to the lawsuit, that message wasn’t given to Sutherland until the next day when the mother called again.
Jasmine went to the Mid Coast Hospital emergency room that afternoon. She was sent to Maine Medical Center that evening and transferred to its pediatric intensive care unit to address the excess fluid around her lungs and heart.
Shortly after midnight, her heart rate slowed. She was pronounced dead early in the morning of Aug. 1.
Several days after her death, it was determined the fluid was actually related to a type of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Poulin said. The National Cancer Institute noted this year that approximately 98% of children with that type of leukemia attain remission.
“If Martin’s Point had only sent Jazzy to the Emergency Department on July 30, as Jazzy’s primary care provider instructed, Jazzy likely would have survived,” the complaint alleges.
Jasmine would have turned 18 in August. Several friends and family members gathered that day around her grave with balloons and flowers.
Sutherland said she sees Jasmine’s friends regularly. It’s hard to watch them prepare for life beyond high school and not think of the milestones Jasmine is missing.
She said she hopes families reading about Jasmine never take their children for granted.
“You don’t know when your last day will be. So kiss your kids, and tell them you love them,” Sutherland said. “Because you don’t know.”
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