Union outrage after Ankara hospital admits 27 infant deaths
in [Alternative]
|
Prev: Medicinal marijuana effective for neuropathic pain in HIV
Next: National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program "The total awards paid as of August 6, 2008 were $1,804,415,262.35
From: rpautrey2 on 8 Aug 2008 17:42 Union outrage after Ankara hospital admits 27 infant deaths Sun Aug 3, 4:08 PM ET Twenty-seven newborn babies have died over the past 15 days at a state hospital in Ankara, doctors said Sunday, as a health workers' union blamed poor sanitary conditions for the deaths. Hospital managers, who initially said that about a third of the deaths were caused by infections, told a press conference that tests on samples from the babies produced no trace of an infection. The babies, all born prematurely, died at Ankara's Zekai Tahir Burak Hospital for a variety of reasons, including hypertension, heart failure and complications at birth, said Ugur Dilmen, the chief doctor of the newborns' unit. "The tests indicate nothing abnormal," the Anatolya news agency quoted Dilmen as saying. However the hospital's chief doctor, Leyla Mollamahmutoglu, said they had now stopped admitting women for premature births, Anatolia reported. During the month of July, a total of 47 of the 504 babies treated in the hospital had died, Dilmen said. He pointed out that the hospital is one of the busiest in Turkey, handling risky cases from all over the country, and ruled out any negligence on the part of doctors. Dilmen said almost 4,500 babies were treated at the hospital last year. But the SES health workers union dismissed the explanations, saying that the hospital was seeking to cover up serious shortcomings and negligence. The head of the Ankara branch of SES, Ibrahim Kara, said an infection outbreak caused by poor sanitary conditions might be the likely reason for the deaths, insisting the 27 babies died over a three-day period -- from Thursday to Saturday -- and not over 15 days as doctors had said. "An average of 170 to 180 babies die in this hospital annually," Kara told AFP, saying that the figures were statistics obtained from the hospital. "If 27 babies die in three days and 47 in a month, they just cannot explain this as normal, no matter how many risky cases they handle," he added. Hospital officials were not avalaible for comment on the union's claims. "Moreover, if everything is normal, why did they decide to stop admitting women for premature births?" Kara asked. He claimed the hospital's delivery unit had been relocated in the building due to renovation work and was prone to infections. He criticised the hospital authorities for failing to limit the number of patients received there during the renovation work, leading to overcrowding that would have worsened any outbreak of infection. "Two or three women are made to wait on the same stretcher before giving birth and sometimes three newborn babies are put in the same incubator," Kara said. SES was the first to draw attention to the deaths, claiming the hospital sought to cover them up. Alarm over the standards in Turkish hospitals was initially raised in 2005, when eight premature babies died of a bacterial infection in a hospital in the northwestern city of Edirne. Copyright © 2008 Agence France Presse. Copyright © 2008 Yahoo All rights reserved. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080803/hl_afp/turkeyhealthchildren_080803200823 |