Update on Hospital Baby

But not the update I had been hoping to bring y'all:


Baby injured in hospital room dies
An 8-month-old girl who was critically injured in her room at Connecticut Children's Medical Center died Friday morning, a hospital spokesman said. Hospital officials did not provide the cause of death.

The baby was found Feb. 19 in a pool of blood on the floor of her room by a nurse. She had been in critical condition since then with severe head injuries.

Hartford police have said their investigation is focused on a 7-year-old boy who slipped away from his family while they were visiting another child in a nearby room Saturday evening.

No member of the hospital staff faces any discipline as a result of the incident, Hanley has said.

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I have a few problems with this, ZPT fans.

FIRST: NO ONE at the hospital is going to be held accountable for this in any way? What kind of bullshit is THAT? They were directly responsible for that baby. The baby was on the floor in a pool of blood, and then died. How could they NOT discipline someone for this tragedy? I am not a person who likes lawsuits on the whole; I believe we have become an overly litigious society. But in this case? I hope the parents sue the mother fucking pants off these assholes. They trusted their precious infant's life to these people, and they won't even take responsibility for her death. I'm sure the billing department won't forget the parents, though. And it sickens me.

SECOND: I've had a child in NICU. I know exactly what cribs they are speaking of. If that hospital uses the standard cribs (the ones I've seen in at least a dozen hospitals in four or five states), then there is NO WAY a 7-year-old got in there and took that baby out. The cribs are high off the floor, to make it easier to transition the sick babies. The sides of the cribs are also very, very high...to keep more active toddlers from climbing out and injuring themselves. Even standing on a chair, I can't see a child being able to not only reach into the crib, but pull a baby out of it.

THIRD: Let's suspend disbelief for a moment, and say the 7-year-old DID, in fact, cause the baby's injuries. Where were this child's parents? Why was the child permitted to roam the hospital unattended? Did no nurse notice this child wandering the halls, going into other patients' private rooms? I've been to NICUs before, and they usually have tight security and many nurses on the floor. This hospital claimed to not only have many nurses and tight security...but to having video cameras as well. So why didn't anyone see this kid going in to the room? And why didn't anyone see him LEAVING it? I have kids, folks. If a child dropped a baby, unless the kid's a budding psychopath, that kid RAN out of the room. And yet, no one noticed THAT, either?

FOURTH: The original article I read about this story claimed that this happened AFTER visiting hours. They are only NOW claiming that this family with the 7-year-old was there...and once again, in my experience, families are not permitted to be in the NICU after visiting hours. Mom is often allowed to stay overnight, especially if there is surgery scheduled for the next day or Mom is breastfeeding...but 7-year-olds? Who could be carrying viruses that many of the babies are suseptible to? Whose play could disturb the other babies? Not a chance. And if the hospital DID permit it...how can they say they AREN'T to blame?

FIFTH: I've also never seen a baby in the NICU who wasn't attached to some sort of device: IV, respirator, heart monitor. This baby had heart problems...you can't tell me she wasn't attached to a heart monitor. A monitor that should have gone off the second the feed was disturbed, which moving the baby in a rough manner (such as a small child would move her) would do. So I ask again: WHERE WERE THE FREAKING NURSES?!?!?!?


I am saddened beyond words for the family of this child. And sickened that the hospital is side-stepping any responsibility for what happened. I don't buy the 7-year-old story. Maybe I'm wrong. But it smells like a whole lot of who-shot-John to me. Too much like a hospital passing the buck. And with a dead baby on their hands...maybe they should stop passing the buck and start finding out what is wrong in their NICU that this could happen. Or, Heaven forbid...it could happen again.