ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Tampa Bay area hospital admits to sending out an invitation to celebrate cancer survivors to the parents of a child who died from the disease more than a decade ago.
A brain tumor put Daniel Frydrych through two-plus years of radiation and chemotherapy.
He died in 2006, just shy of his 12th birthday.
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“It was a long, intense battle and he fought valiantly," said Daniel's mother, Holley Wade.
That's why when the mail arrived Monday, she was shocked to find an invitation from Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.
It was addressed to Daniel, inviting him to "Cancer Survivor Day" at a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game in June.
“To see his name, it definitely causes you to choke up a little bit and causes a lump in the throat," Wade said. “And then have it be a celebration of a disease that he succumbed to.”
ABC Action News has learned, the hospital sent out about 1,600 invites and staff members are now reviewing if any more were mistakenly sent to grieving families.
Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital provided the following statement:
"We are very sorry to learn about this clerical error. Our staff are working to understand how this occurred. We have checks and rechecks in place to ensure something like this doesn’t happen, but our team is devastated to learn that our system failed in this case. We are reaching out personally to express our apologies and deep disappointment about this situation."
Since posting about mail mishap on social media, Wade has already heard from another family who says they were mistakenly mailed the same invitation.
“This shouldn’t have happened and no parent should have to go through this and we just want to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again," Wade said.
