Probe after premature baby dies in hospital
The Prince of Wales Hospital said on late Wednesday that a premature newborn died after an equipment blunder meant the baby did not receive drugs it required.  The infant, born on Monday after less than 28 weeks of gestation, was put on a ventilator in intensive care and infusion. The hospital said the infant also had congenital heart problems and presented persistent hypotension. Medics adjusted the drug infusion rate early on Tuesday morning. About 50 minutes later, an alarm went off and staff found the stopcock of the infusion tube was not open, preventing drug infusion.  The hospital said staff immediately resumed the infusion but the infant's condition continued to deteriorate. The baby died on Tuesday afternoon. The hospital said it is very concerned about the incident, expressing apology and deepest condolences to the family. It reported the case to the Hospital Authority Head Office and it would set up a panel to investigate the incident thoroughly. The case has also been referred to the Coroner for follow-up.  The hospital said it had adopted immediate measures to prevent the occurrence of similar incident, including to remind healthcare staff to be vigilant when performing drug infusion with newborn babies.