Grieving mother who lost her baby in hospital ceiling collapse speaks out: My baby died after his lungs filled with blood

The ceiling of the neonatal intensive care unit at the Prof. Dr. Murat Dilmener Emergency Hospital, which was built and delivered in 45 days by Rönesans Holding during the pandemic, collapsed around 01:00 on the night between Saturday and Sunday.

According to a report by ANKA, 8 babies were evacuated by fire crews following the incident, which was caused by a burst hot water pipe. Baby “Karan,” one of the 3 premature infants transferred from the affected section to another, lost his life.

Karan was laid to rest on Sunday, the day the incident occurred. The grieving family, who had even prepared a room for Karan—born via IVF but lost in a chain of events that began with a burst hot water pipe in his first hours of life—spoke about what they experienced on the day of the incident and afterward at their home in Zeytinburnu.

'WHAT HAPPENED IS IRRESPONSIBILITY AND NEGLIGENCE'

Father Turgut and mother Büşra Şentürk described the events as "irresponsibility" and "negligence."

Recounting the events of that day, Turgut Şentürk stated that they had gone to see the baby on the evening of the incident and said:

At that time, we saw the child. They had given him a normal dose of medication, and the child had returned to normal breathing. We saw it. There is even a video of it; we had recorded it.

They called me at 03:20 at night. They said, ‘You need to come to the hospital immediately. Your baby has become ill.’ He was born prematurely, but they were keeping him in an incubator and providing support.

They were going to hand him over to us once he recovered normally. They said the first three days were critical. They said they would progress slowly after that. In fact, on the night the incident happened, there were only about 2-3 hours left until the 72-hour mark.

'THE HOT WATER PIPE BURST, IT HIT THE CEILING AND IT COLLAPSED WITH THE CEILING'

I was at home, sleeping. I left and went straight to the hospital. Then the intensive care doctor and their assistants came out; they said, ‘Last night around 12:20, an 80-degree hot water pipe burst. It hit the ceiling. It collapsed along with the ceiling. There were 8 babies inside. We evacuated the 8 babies. We evacuated some by breaking the glass, and some we evacuated through the normal route to the adjacent intensive care unit. Your baby was one of those three high-risk babies.’

While they were moving him to the next room, while they were carrying him to the adjacent intensive care unit, blood filled the child's lungs. They drained this blood. They intervened afterward, but they said they could not save him.

In the video taken there, my child's room is already in the back. The leak and the water burst happen one room over. The moment the nurse is there in the video, that is the room where my child was. So, there is a nurse inside.

'IF THEY HAD EVACUATED BY BREAKING THE GLASS, SOMETHING DIFFERENT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED'

How did they evacuate from there? There is also electricity. If they hadn't evacuated from there, maybe nothing would have happened. Maybe if they had evacuated by breaking the glass, something different would have happened. After that, they told us we had lost the child. I just collapsed where I was. My wife was already at the hospital anyway. She was lying down; she had been there for about 14-15 days.

She had been diagnosed with preeclampsia. That's why they were monitoring her blood pressure. That's why the premature birth happened. After that, we left there. We went to my wife with the doctor. That doctor gave the same explanation to my wife there.

Due to the negligence there, due to the hot water pipes not being checked, due to the collapse of the ceiling, whether it was during the evacuation or due to the situation there; these will be investigated. We have already started the legal process. We lost our baby due to negligence stemming from that.