Third death
August 24, 2010
A third baby has died after receiving a contaminated intravenous drip at a hospital in Germany.
A spokeswoman for Mainz University Hospital said that the premature infant born at 24 weeks died on Monday evening.
Two babies died at the hospital on Saturday after being given nutritional infusions that had been contaminated with an unspecified strain of intestinal bacteria.
Cause of death still unclear
Whether or not the latest death was caused through contamination has not been established. All three babies were seriously ill before receiving the feed, with the babies that died on Saturday aged two months and eight months.
Four other babies remained in a critical condition on Monday evening after being given the infusions.
Prosecutors are investing a possible case of involuntary manslaughter and bodily harm, with one possible cause of the contamination being that the feed had come into contact with unsterilized tubes.
A special room used to prepare the nutritional solutions has been closed, lead prosecutor Peter Mieth said on Monday.
“The tubes are the only part of the equipment that staff are directly in contact with, which could allow bacteria to enter,” said Mieth.
The contamination was discovered during daily lab tests on the infusions, which were administered on Friday.
Editor: Richard Connor (dpa/AFP/Reuters)
Editor: Chuck Penfold