Newborn baby dies because nurse was sleeping! Scandal at Diyarbakır hospital revealed

At a private hospital in Diyarbakır, K.A. gave birth to twins on August 24, 2021. One of the twins, a boy named E.A.A., who was placed in an incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit, passed away on October 5 of the same year. E.A.A.'s death was reported to his family as a natural death. On October 14, when the father, E.A., went to visit his daughter, the other twin, a hospital attendant working there told him that his child's death was not a natural death but rather the result of the nurses' negligence, and that she had recorded these instances of negligence. Upon hearing this, the father filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutor's office and granted power of attorney to his lawyer.

An autopsy was performed on October 18 to determine the cause of death, and the file was sent to the Forensic Medicine Units in Adana, Istanbul, and Diyarbakır. The opinion prepared by the 8th Specialized Forensic Medicine Board was finalized yesterday, stating that it was deemed appropriate for the court to make the final decision.

'THE NURSES WERE SLEEPING THERE'

Lawyer Muhammet Tanrıkulu stated that his client's wife had struggled for years to conceive and that the pregnancy finally occurred after a long period of IVF treatment. Stating that the two babies were placed in incubators following a premature birth on August 24, 2021, Tanrıkulu noted that while in the incubator, the baby girl's condition was worse, while the baby boy was more lively. Tanrıkulu said, “On October 4, the client was called and informed, ‘Your child is currently in crisis and is struggling for life.’ On October 5, he passed away. Our client thought his daughter had passed away, but he learned it was his son. Since they were informed it was a natural death, they buried him. The baby girl continued to remain in the hospital. On October 14, when he went to visit his daughter, a hospital attendant came to his car at the hospital exit and asked to speak with him in a corner. When my client got out of the vehicle and spoke with her, she informed him, ‘Your son did not die a natural death; the nurses were sleeping there. Your child died by choking on his own vomit.’ Following this, my client applied to the prosecutor's office, and the next day we obtained the power of attorney and began following the file.”

Stating that they requested an autopsy, Tanrıkulu continued:

“The grave was opened, and the autopsy procedure was carried out on the 18th. Our file was sent to the Adana, Istanbul, and Diyarbakır Forensic Medicine Units to determine the cause of death. In the meantime, the responsible nurses and doctors in question were also called to give statements. Although 3 of the nurses and the doctors claimed the death was a natural death, another nurse came forward and declared that she saw two nurses sleeping in the intensive care unit, that she then looked at the intensive care unit and saw the baby in a bruised state, that she woke the nurses up, and that despite the interventions made, the baby could not be saved.”

2 DOCTORS INCLUDED IN THE INVESTIGATION

Stating that the prosecutor's office advanced the file further following this incident, Tanrıkulu said, “However, due to a change in a legal article, since permission for investigation must now be obtained from the Ministry of Health for private hospital physicians, our file first went to the Ministry of Health. Although the Ministry granted permission for the investigation regarding 3 nurses, it did not grant permission for the investigation regarding the 2 responsible doctors. Following this, we filed an objection to the Ankara Regional Administrative Court. The Regional Administrative Court accepted our objection and included the 2 responsible doctors in the investigation. Our file has been waiting at the forensic medicine department since May 2024. The hospital attendant who warned our client later stated that she had been recording video footage of the incident in question for a long time and gave the footage to our client. In the footage in question, it is understood that the nurses were sleeping in the intensive care unit, dancing while filming 'TikTok' videos, that there were 3 babies in a single incubator, that the babies were kept in the incubators in a bloody state, and that saturation levels were lowered to 70 instead of 90, ensuring that the alarms would not go off later and disturb the nurses, and that they continued to sleep despite the warnings.”

'THE HOSPITAL IS OPERATING WITH APPROXIMATELY 18 FEWER NURSES THAN REQUIRED'

Expressing that they touched upon this issue while filing the objection, Tanrıkulu said, “In the communiqué regarding intensive care units published in the Official Gazette on July 20, 2011, it is stated that there should be one nurse for every two baby incubators. We know that there are 45 incubators in the hospital in our case. In the statements given, it is said that only two nurses were present there. The hospital is operating with approximately 18 fewer nurses than required. At the same time, it is seen that by putting 2-3 babies inside the incubators, they are exceeding even the number of 45.”

“After the hospital documents were brought into the prosecutor's file, it was written in the doctors' epicrisis report that our client's baby was already not moving, was unresponsive, and that for this reason, a natural death occurred,” said Tanrıkulu, adding, “However, in the videos we have, it was already proven that our client's deceased baby was active one day before the death. Although it was said that he died after his breathing stopped, an X-ray was taken. We took this X-ray and submitted it to our file. As far as we understand, the hospital management and the doctors have made every effort collectively to hide such deaths. In the preliminary autopsy report, it was observed that an abdominal lavage was performed after the baby's death; this situation will be understood in the forensic medicine report. After all these years, the pain of our client, who was waiting for his son, bought a twin stroller for his twin children, and bought every item twice, has grown exponentially.”