Catania, there is no room in hospitals and a newborn dies in an ambulance

(archive image)

• Newborn dies after the caesarean in Vibo Valentia

• He had to give birth, a woman dies in the Neapolitan area.

  The newborn is also a victim

Share

February 12, 2015 A baby girl had a severe respiratory crisis immediately after birth in a private clinic in Catania but there are no places available in the pediatric resuscitation wards in the city and is therefore urgently transferred by ambulance to the Ragusa hospital.

During the transfer, however, he has a violent crisis and dies before arriving at the hospital.

The Ragusa Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation on the episode to ascertain any medical responsibilities and the availability of inadequate clinical facilities in Catania or in the nearest provinces.

"We will shed some light on what happened" declared the regional councilor for health Lucia Borsellino.

"What happened in Catania is inadmissible and simply shameful, a newborn cannot die in an ambulance because there was no room in the hospital".

According to an initial reconstruction, the doctors who assisted in the birth immediately realized the seriousness of the child's clinical picture and contacted the neonatal intensive treatment units (Utin) of Catania to transfer her urgently.

But they were all full, with no places available and so they called 118 which sought and found an available Utin in the Paterno-Arezzo hospital in Ragusa.

The clinic then proceeded, with a private ambulance, to transport the newborn to Ragusa, with the medical specialists of the private structure in tow, but during the journey the little girl had a violent crisis.

Doctors aboard the ambulance attempted to revive her, but the baby died.

In Catania there are officially about 35, distributed in four hospitals, the places in the Utin, two of which are without primary care, replaced by pediatricians, a neonatologist and a surgeon.

"The places in the neonatal intensive care units in Catania are certainly fewer than what would be needed" says Agata Motta, the director of Utin of the Garibaldi-Nesina hospital in Catania.