ED Deaths of newborns

Time to take action to prevent hospital mishaps

The deaths of four newborns Saturday shocked the nation. It is unprecedented for such a thing to occur in one of the nation’s top university hospitals. More shocking is the deaths took place in an intensive care unit for infants.

The victims were pre-term infants in incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ewha Womans University Medical Center in western Seoul. They died suddenly one by one between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. It is very unusual for patients to die of similar symptoms over a two-hour period.

According to the hospital, the newborns suffered sudden cardiac arrest almost at the same time. Medical staff tried to revive them through cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); but this failed. The hospital said it doesn’t know what caused the deaths, adding that staff had not detected any critical factors beforehand.

First of all, health authorities and police should find the exact cause of the deaths. The National Forensic Service conducted autopsies on the babies Monday. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began an epidemiological investigation.

It is too early to tell, but no one can rule out the possibility of medical malpractice. Some bereaved families said their babies had bloated bellies and difficulty in breathing before they died. They hinted at negligence or a blunder on the part of the hospital. Their claims seem to be backed by preliminary results showing that three of the four infants had suspected bacterial infections.

It is also worth noting that the hospital earlier had operated on two other pre-term infants suffering from potentially fatal necrotizing enterocolitis. These operations might have had to do with the deaths. If the hospital is found to be responsible, it should be subject to harsh punishment and corrective measures.

The health authorities ought to take the tragic deaths as an opportunity to overhaul the medical delivery system and the operation of intensive care units in bid to prevent patients from contracting infections at hospitals.

People still vividly remember the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015 which killed 38 out of 186 people infected with the highly contagious virus. Samsung Medical Center and other hospitals were hit for their poor treatment of MERS patients and lack of proper facilities to keep the patients quarantined.

The case of the newborns also calls for a better healthcare system for pre-term babies who are born prior to 37 weeks of a full-term pregnancy or weigh less than 2.5 kilograms. The number of these babies is rising. It jumped to 30,408 in 2015 from 20,498 in 2005. Considering the nation’s low birthrate, it is necessary to prevent the deaths of premature babies.