Hong Kong hospital staff will not be held responsible for baby’s fall from incubator
Investigation panel says nurse may have accidentally opened window, which allowed 24-day-old girl to crawl out
A nurse may have accidentally opened an incubator window through which a newborn girl fell and suffered a brain haemorrhage, a hospital investigation panel concluded, but medical staff would not be held responsible.
The girl, who was just 24 days old when the rare incident took place in May, was now in a stable condition in Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei.
Hospital chief executive Dr Nelson Wat Ming-sun said police were still studying the incident and the purpose of the panel’s inquiry was to find flaws in procedures and prevent future accidents. He said the findings had been shared with other hospitals that used the same devices.
“There was no explanation of how the baby would be able to kick herself out the window, even if it was opened,” he said in a media briefing after a meeting with hospital chiefs.
“How long did it take her. Did she cry out during the process? Why did no one hear anything?
“I expected the truth after eight weeks. The result is too trifling.”
Frederick Fung Kin-kee of the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood, who has been assisting the family, criticised the hospital for not holding staff liable.
He said the police would only look into the possibility of any criminal offence behind the incident, meaning it was unlikely the hospital would hold staff responsible for misconduct or negligence.
Two nurses found the baby girl crying on the floor in the special baby care unit. A mother who was in the same cubicle taking care of her baby said she heard something drop to the floor but did not witness the incident. One of the four working windows on the incubator was found to be open.
There was no surveillance video in the ward due to the privacy concerns of breastfeeding mothers.
After eight weeks looking into the incident, Dr David Sun Tin-fung, chairman of the investigative panel, said it was possible a nurse may have accidentally knocked off the lock of a window on the incubator when staff covered it with a blanket to shade the baby from light.
He said the window, measuring 17cm x 15cm, was large enough for the baby to crawl through and fall to the ground.
It would be difficult to open the window from inside when it was locked, and the baby would not have been able to kick it open on her own, he admitted.
The girl’s mother said: “Her condition seems to be OK now. But we are still worried about whether the blood clot inside her brain affects her development.”
The panel made four suggestions to avoid a repeat of the incident. It advised nurses to double check the locks and to avoid laying blankets or pads under babies that would raise their heads to the same level as the window.