Prosecutor seeks jail time for nurses that poisoned infants
The bottle on the left is chlorhexidine, an antiseptic cleanser. On the right, a sugar solution for infants.
Image: YLE
A trial involving three nurses that fed a corrosive cleaning agent to infants began at Espoo district court on Friday. The defendants all deny the bodily injury charges brought against them.
The nurses fed the three two-day-old newborns a strong cleaning fluid, chlorhexidine, that they mistook for a sugar solution due to the similar appearance of the bottles. Chlorhexidine is a powerful chemical antiseptic that should never be ingested.
The babies were treated in intensive care and some were put on respirators.
“We’re not saying that any of the nurses did it on purpose. The issue is that these injuries would not have occurred if the nurses had been careful,” said district prosecutor Tapio Mäkinen in court.
One of the babies, who was administered an emergency baptism in hospital, has yet to fully recover, said an attorney for the family of the incident which occurred several years ago.
The nurses are meanwhile pointing a finger of blame at the pharmacy that packaged the liquids.
“Why isn’t the pharmacy on trial? Both solutions were put in identical bottles,” said a representative of one of the defendants.
YLE