Tragic death of baby Rayan in Madrid hospital

| Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Rayan—the two week-old premature son of Spain’s first swine–flu victim Dalilah, who died herself just two weeks ago—has been killed by what Madrid health authorities are calling a ‘ghastly error‘ and what some will soon be calling gross negligence.

(Image by antoniotajuelo on Flickr.)

A newly-minted nurse in the intensive care unit of Madrid’s Gregorio Marañón hospital – who was not doing work experience but had no prior professional experience with premature babies in intensive care – fed Baby Rayan’s milk mixture into his vein instead of into his stomach.

Baby Rayan did not have swine flu and was ‘progressing very well‘ before the tragic error at around 9 p.m. He was dead an hour or so later.

The hospital administrators have accepted: “all human, professional and monetary liability“.

21 year-old Mohamed, the father of Baby Rayan and the widower of Dalilah, is absolutely distraught, of course: “Right now all of my attention is with my son.” He hasn’t contacted lawyers yet or made a criminal complaint, but he surely will.

He had already announced he was going to bring a case for negligence against Madrid health authorities over the death of his wife after she was told her swine flu was little more than a cold three times by doctors in different Madrid casualty departments.

I spoke to a very good friend of mine who has been an intensive care nurse for 10 years here in Murcia and she told me that:

1. theoretically it is very difficult to mix up the two different bags of nutrition, they’re clearly marked;
2. Spanish nurses receive very little training – not enough – in parenteral (intravenous) nutrition during their 3-year nursing diploma;
3. The standard 3-year nursing diploma is not enough training before giving new or non-specialist nurses responsibility for critical patients;
4. right now, Spanish hospitals are packed full of substitute nurses with little or no experience as the experienced ones enjoy their summer holidays;
5. Spanish nurses have been struggling for years to implant longer, more specialised training courses for things like intensive care. Currently, only midwives are required to do extra training;