“We don’t know exactly where the infection came from, it is a very unusual strain of bacteria,” said Eva Berggren Broström, head of the Pediatric unit at Stockholm South General Hospital (Södersjukhuset) .
The baby boy, born ten weeks prematurely, died of sepsis and meningitis, after being infected with a strain of E.coli bacteria that was resistant to antibiotics.
After the discovery of the infection at the neonatal ward, all the children were tested for the bacteria and the results showed that a further eleven children were carriers of the same bacteria.
“But none of these children fell ill,” Berggren Broström told Expressen.
An internal investigation resulted in the same hygiene demands on the parents of the children, as the staff that were working there.
The incident has now been reported to the health board in accordance with Sweden’s Lex Maria, the informal name for regulations governing the reporting of injuries or incidents in the Swedish health care system.
The report was not filed until the end of the year, despite the discovery occurring at the end of summer.
“It takes time to investigate what has happened and we tested all the children in the ward at the same time, that went on way into December,” explained Berggren Broström.
However, no infection has been detected in any of the results since the end of September.
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