On Nov. 12, 2023, Ashley Griego arrived at Lovelace Women’s Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a scheduled labor and delivery.
That morning, she packed a bag with everything she would need. Diapers. Wipes. A breast-pump. A change of clothes. She left the house in perfect condition, as she’d just redone a room for her oldest son after revamping the nursery for their soon-to-be newborn.
Griego cried when she dropped off her oldest son, then 2, at his great-grandmother’s. It was her first time leaving him overnight, and the two were attached at the hip. Any worries faded into excitement once she reached the hospital. She danced, cracked jokes and was being her "silly self," her husband, Jerry Griego, tells USA TODAY.
But Griego never returned
home.
By 9:05 p.m., her contractions became concerningly frequent, but her family says she was given a large dose of Cytotec, a medication that is often given to induce labor and can intensify contractions. Complications from the medication led to an emergency C-section that Ashley Griego ultimately did not survive, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of her estate. It alleges Lovelace Hospital System failed to provide adequate care.
Jessica Peralta, her mother, says if changes had been instituted after any of the previous lawsuits, her daughter's death could have been avoided.
"She never got to hold (her baby), and her (son) is missing out on what was at one point most of his world," Peralta says.
Their case represents just one of at least 21 families who have sued Lovelace since 2011, citing delayed C-sections and subsequent infant injuries. In January 2026, another family filed a lawsuit alleging that Lovelace "systematically disenfranchised, intimidated and ignored" nurses who raised safety concerns.
"Lovelace Women's Hospital is one of the leading maternity hospitals in New Mexico, caring for families through more than 45,000 deliveries over the past 15 years – the same period these lawsuits were filed," according to a statement from Lovelace Women's Hospital. "Throughout that time, we consistently performed better than national benchmarks on key maternal and newborn quality measures."
The family says Griego's care felt rushed: 'Her concerns were being ignored'
The scheduled induction started as expected, and then "everything went wrong," her mother says.
Griego’s uterine contractions became excessive. The lawsuit says she was experiencing uterine tachysystole, which means she was having more than five contractions in a 10-minute window. Typically, a person would experience only two to five contractions in that time span.
Uterine tachysystole can become dangerous, as it may reduce oxygen flow to the fetus or change its heart rate.
But at 9:05 p.m., Griego was given a "large dose" of Cytotec, a medication used to induce labor, according to the lawsuit. The medication’s FDA warning states, "Cytotec can induce or augment uterine contractions" and "a major adverse effect of the obstetrical use is uterine tachysystole which may progress to … amniotic fluid embolism."
"It felt like there were a lot of different opinions and there were a lot of suggestions to… speed things up," Jerry says. "Like they were trying to get us in and out."
Her mother says it "did not feel like normal labor," but the nurse kept saying it was. "(Ashley's) concerns were being ignored and pushed to the side," Jerry says.
Kathleen Green, an OB-GYN at Maven Clinic, says Cytotec − which is the brand name for misoprostol − is a commonly used medication as part of labor induction and is recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Green is not associated with either party in the lawsuit, and could not comment directly on the case. She says there are "different accepted doses and routes of administration," so the definition of a "high-dose" can depend on "the actual dosage, how the medication was given and how frequently it was administered."
Green says the risks of Cytotec are well known to OB-GYNs, including uterine tachysystole.
"The risk of tachysystole can increase with higher doses, which is one reason appropriate dosing and monitoring are important," she says.
At approximately 2 a.m., fetal heart tracings showed that Griego's baby’s heart rate had slowed, according to the complaint. Eighteen minutes later, the doctor ordered an emergency C-section, and Griego's baby boy was delivered at 2:28 a.m., according to the lawsuit.
But the lawsuit states that Griego suffered an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) during the delivery, meaning the fluid surrounding the fetus or fetal cells had entered her bloodstream, which can cause sudden heart-lung collapse and massive bleeding. Green says AFE is "an extremely rare and often catastrophic obstetric emergency."
"It can happen without warning, progress incredibly quickly, and can be fatal despite immediate treatment," she added, and it unfortunately "remains unpredictable and, based on our current understanding, cannot reliably be prevented." Some research, according to Green, shows that uterine tachysystole is part of developing AFE, rather than the event that causes it.
The statement from Lovelace Women’s Hospital said privacy laws prevent the hospital from sharing details about any patient's care, but that "the facts as presented do not reflect (their) understanding of what occurred."
"We will provide a more complete picture through the legal process where the full record can be considered," the statement said.
"Every labor and delivery is different, and decisions about care are made collaboratively between the patient and her physician," the statement continued, "guided by the patient's individual condition and preferences, and the clinical judgment of what is safest for mother and baby."
Griego died in the ICU on Nov. 15, 2023, never being able to hold her newborn son or see her oldest again.
"You go into a hospital expecting it to be the safest place you can be," her husband says. But "everybody in that hospital that could fail her, failed her," her mother added.
In the days following her death, Jerry received the hospital bill in the mail.
'My son still talks about her'
The court complaint alleges that Lovelace showed negligence in hiring, training and supervising employees, leading to Griego's death. Peralta says if they had known about the other cases already filed against Lovelace, Griego likely would have chosen a different facility for her care.
"It makes me angry that this should have been fixed years and years ago," Peralta says. "That she had to go through that, her children have to go through this, that we have to go through this, that there are other people who are probably still going to go through this because it still hasn't been repaired."
The grief has been persistent for Griego's family. Her parents mourn the loss of their daughter. Her husband is raising their two boys without his wife. Three years later, it’s still difficult for her mom to talk about her death without crying.
"It takes at least three of us, four of us, and most of the time five of us to do what she would have done by herself," Peralta says.
After her death, Jerry took two months off work just "figuring out how to move forward."
"I spent a lot of time wondering why it was her, and how the boys would have been better off if it would have been me in her place," he says. "I did that for a long time, but we have everybody here, and I couldn’t do it without everyone."
Her family talks to the kids about her. They tell them how "sweet and kind and loving" she was, how much she loved her youngest child even though he wasn’t here yet. Her oldest, now 5, still remembers her favorite color.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: She died days after an emergency C-section. Her family wants answers
