Hospitals ‘caused’ baby’s death
An investigation into the death of a 13-month-old boy in northern Greece has concluded that two hospitals were guilty of a series of mistakes and oversights when they treated the youngster. Five months ago, the Health Ministry ordered an internal investigation into the roles of the pediatric clinic at Veria Hospital, the Infectious Diseases (Eidikon Pathiseon) Hospital in Thessaloniki and the Ippokratio Hospital in Thessaloniki. The pathologist that carried out the probe found that the first two institutions had made grave errors in their handling of the case, resulting in the child’s death. The young boy, Yiannis Moisiadis, was taken to the hospital in March 2009 after suffering from symptoms of gastroenteritis. Although the boy was from Kozani, he could not be taken to the local pediatric clinic due to a shortage of pediatricians. Instead, he was taken to Veria, where, according to the investigation, he was not treated properly. «Doctors and nurses made some serious oversights at the pediatric clinic in Veria because they did not diagnose the child’s condition promptly or correctly; they did not read his test results correctly; no attempt was made to connect an intravenous drip, which meant that the child was transported in a dehydrated state, and no effort was made to administer antibiotics to the child,» the pathologist’s report said. The probe highlighted 10 instances of failure by doctors and three by nurses. The boy was transferred to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Thessaloniki, where the inspector’s report suggests more mistakes were made. Again, doctors are accused of not identifying the severity of the child’s illness and failing to give him antibiotics. The hospital is also alleged to have been to slow in transferring the boy to the children’s intensive-care unit at the Ippokratio Hospital, where he died. The inspector found that the doctors and there had not done anything wrong. The report has been sent to the directors of the hospitals and a Thessaloniki prosecutor for charges to be issued and disciplinary action to be taken.
