Baby dies after getting nitrous oxide, not oxygen
The devastated mother of a newborn boy who died when he was mistakenly given the wrong gas at a Sydney hospital has described how she held her baby’s lifeless body and urged him to ‘‘Wake up, wake up’’.
‘‘I held my baby, they [brought] him to me at the hospital,’’ Sonya Ghanem said.
‘‘I said, ‘I want to see him’. Just looking at him, shaking. ‘ My son, wake up,’ I would tell him. Wake up, wake up. What did they do to you?’.’’
The baby boy, named John, died at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital on July 13. New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner said he was mistakenly treated with nitrous oxide, commonly known as ‘‘laughing gas’’, instead of oxygen in the neo-natal unit.
Another baby boy, born in June, remains in a critical condition with brain damage after he also was mistakenly treated with nitrous oxide.
Skinner said the oxygen outlet in one of the hospital’s theatres was incorrectly installed with nitrous oxide, rather than oxygen.
The error was discovered last Thursday after a paediatrician raised concerns about the baby’s death.
‘‘I am profoundly sorry for the families of a newborn who died and another newborn who was severely affected,’’ Skinner said.
‘‘I deeply regret these families have suffered through such a devastating error. NSW Health will do all it can to support them.’’
NSW Health officials told Ghanem and her husband, Youssef, of the fatal error 10 days after their baby’s death.
Ghanem was in labour for several hours before doctors told her she needed to undergo an emergency caesarean. She was put under general anaesthetic. When she awoke, she was told by a nurse her baby son had died.