A dozen dead babies in less than 3 weeks – that's what the KHMH, Belize's National Referral Hospital, is contending with tonight, and the public uproar is enormous – as it should be, because the loss of life is, honestly, unimaginable.
As we reported last night, the culprit is believed to have been a bacterial infection, that descended on the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit like a plague. The babies in that unit are typically the sickest, most vulnerable patients in the hospital, most of them are premature – and all of them were seriously ill, meaning they can hardly breathe on their own, much less fight an infection.
And that's what created the conditions for a devastating and rapid loss of a dozen newborns. And while the KHMH investigates what went wrong, the families are getting ready for funerals or trying to recover from them. We spoke to two grieving parents today.
Jules Vasquez reporting
Harrison Sutherland - Father of 8 day old baby died at KHMH
"I'm just sad for my baby, really sad because so much babies have died just like that, it's sad."
Harrison Sutherland and Kelcey Young are an 18 year old couple. Their baby Imari was born premature at 7 months on Mother's day but died 8 days later.
Harrison Sutherland
"Well in a way I'm angry yes because I blame the hospital for it."
This 16 year old mother feels the same:
Voice Of: 16 year old Mother Of Deceased Premature Newborn
"They killed my baby that I have to say that they killed my baby."
Her baby boy, Jordan was the last to die on the 20th, when he was just 15 days old.
Voice Of: 16 year old Mother Of Deceased Premature Newborn
"The first time the baby came in the Intensive Care the doctor told me that the only reason that the baby is in there is because he was premature and his lungs needed to develop and they would keep him in there for the full nine months. Now they called us two days after and they called in the morning again and told us the baby turned blue. My mom, sister and I came in and when I saw the baby all his face was purple and his feet were blue and everything was blue. The last time I could have seen my baby alive the doctor told me that my baby was getting better and the only thing happened was that the medicine was fighting the bacteria inside. When I reached home they called me and told me the baby passed away. My baby was going to live because he was one pound 8 ounces when he was born and within two weeks my baby gained 3lb and 14 ounces and he was only on feed, he wasn't on any antibiotic. Within this week they started telling me about my baby that it turned out that he had sepsis, I don't know what sepsis is because that is what they are telling all the parents that they have a bad infection."
Now they have nothing nice to say about the hospital.
Voice Of: 16 year old Mother Of Deceased Premature Newborn
"And the nurses that are in there are careless, I mean so careless. When I come in sometimes after 6 and I come in to check on my baby, they have some of them on their cell phones, computer and gossiping and talking about each other."
For this father, he knew the end was near:
Harrison Sutherland
"I think I blame I will blame the hospital - the ICU because they knew the ICU had an infection so they should have moved the baby from a long time ago but they waited until all the babies died then they took out the last three everytime I go there they tell me that another baby has died. That really is puzzling to hear that because I think this place should be better than that because it's all the young babies, they should have had that place well secure - wash their hands properly but sometimes I even see people from the morgue go into the ICU with there regular clothes. They would go into the ICU to take gowns, that isn't right."
Voice Of: 16 year old Mother Of Deceased Premature Newborn
"From the first baby died they should have checked the place and tell the parents what was happening. The nurses and the doctors didn't even come to tell us that the place was infected we had to hear it from other parents - they didn't tell us anything."
That lack of urgency in addressing the problem also sticks in the throat of the Chairman of the KHMH Board who learned about the deaths yesterday. She called in the KREM's WUB this morning:
PHONE INTERVIEW with KREM
Evan 'Mose' Hyde
"This was something that should have sent off an alarm bells before it reached a death count of 12."
Chandra Cansino - CHAIRMAN KHMH Board of Directors
"Unfortunately Mose - yes. Those are the answers we are trying to seek. Why was this information not forth coming before we reached this number? The answer to your question is yes; I am trying to compose yourself. Yes I am very disturbed of the fact that we only found out about this yesterday."
And while the administration looks for answers, the lives of these young parents have been shattered:
Voice Of: 16 year old Mother Of Deceased Premature Newborn
"I had big dreams that I wanted to acheieve with my baby and they just came and shattered it."
Harrison Sutherland
"Everyday I get up and I try to do something but it just hurts me because I have to remember it. It's my first baby and we had to bury the baby, it hurts - I cried."
PHONE INTERVIEW with KREM
Chandra Cansino
"I just wanted the general public to know that the board is just as mortified by the numbers as the general public is. There's nothing I can say that can change the reality for the moms and the families of these babies but we just want the general public to know that we are addressing the problem as an emergency."
Harrison Sutherland
"We just want to talk about it and something to come out of it, we want all the parents to come together and talk about it and have something come out of it because it isn't right for babies to just die and nothing comes out of it."
There are no pictures of Baby Imari because on Monday, someone broke into their relatives' Belize City home off Faber's Road and stole the IPAD, with the only pictures of the child.
But, back to the KHMH. First, a team has been doing a rapid investigation all of today. The findings of that – however preliminary - will be presented to the KHMH Board at an emergency meeting tomorrow. The critical determination will be whether it was a failure of reporting, or a failure to respond appropriately.
The Ministry of Health has sent in the Director of Maternal and Child Health, the National Epidemiologist and an Infection Control Expert. Additionally, PAHO, the Pan American Health Organization has offered technical support.
The Opposition PUP also issued a statement today calling for the quote, "immediate resignation of the Minister of Health and of the Board of Directors of the hospital."
The release adds that quote, "The fact that any bacterial or other infection could have been allowed to take so many lives before any response was made, demonstrates that there must have been gross negligence by the hospital authorities."
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