A premature baby with heart problems died after delayed treatment at an intensive care unit in a Hong Kong public hospital, authorities have revealed.
The case centred on a closed supply valve that had obstructed heart medication from reaching the infant’s body for nearly an hour until equipment alarm sounded. The baby died 12 hours after the incident.
Disclosing the case late on Wednesday night, the Hospital Authority said the chief executive of Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin and its clinical team had explained the problem and apologised to the family.
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“A root cause analysis panel would be set up to investigate the incident thoroughly. The case has been referred to the Coroner for follow-up,” the authority said in a statement, without indicating the child’s gender.
The baby, born on June 12 after less than seven months in the womb, had been sent to the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for premature birth and congenital heart issues, with doctors determining it needed ventilation care and inotropes medication – a drug that helps control heart contractions.
Newborn girl’s heart stopped beating in suspected hospital blunder
According to a hospital spokesman, the infant’s intropes dosage was adjusted at around 3am on Tuesday morning, but staff did not realise the stopcock had failed to open until 50 minutes later.
Healthcare workers quickly fixed the issue, but the baby’s condition continued to deteriorate until it died at 4pm on the same day.
“The hospital extended its deepest condolences to relatives,” the spokesman said.
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The hospital said it had preliminarily reviewed the case and adopted immediate measures to prevent similar incidents, including reminding staff to be vigilant when performing drug infusions on newborns, as these involve very small dosages.
The hospital would also liaise with the supplier on the feasibility of enhancing the safety procedure for infusions on newborn babies, it added.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Disclosing medical blunders is ‘Hong Kong standard’ of doing things: head of HKU-Shenzhen Hospital champions transparency
- Medical blunders at Hong Kong hospitals point to overstretched public health care system
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