Baby who lost mother to Swine Flu dies in Spanish hospital from a dreadful medical error

Baby who lost mother to Swine Flu dies in Spanish hospital from a dreadful medical error
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By m.p. - Jul 14, 2009 - 3:58 AM
Rayan was born by Caesarian section at 28 weeks the day before his mother became Spain's first victim of the virus

The Gregorio Marañon Hospital in Madrid where mother and baby both died - EFE

The baby born by Caesarian section the day before his mother became Spain’s first victim of the A(H1N1) virus has died in hospital. Rayan was born at seven months old at the end of June while his 19 year old mother, Dalilah Mimuni, was in a coma just hours before her death.

It was later confirmed that he was born without the virus, but has been under special care since then owing to his early birth. He died on Monday morning because of what Antonio Barba Ruiz de Gauna, manager of the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid, told El Mundo newspaper was ‘a dreadful medical error’.

Rayan was said to be progressing well when, on Sunday evening, a nurse from another department, who El País said was on duty for the first time in the hospital’s neonatal ICU, mistakenly administered premature baby formula into a vein. It should have been delivered by tube to the baby’s stomach.

The nurse was under supervision, but it’s understood the supervisor was absent at the moment the nurse picked up the wrong solution, despite its being correctly labelled, and began intravenous feeding. Doctors worked on the child all night, but Rayan finally died at 12.20 on Monday morning. An internal investigation is under way, but

Antonio Barba Ruiz de Gauna (2nd left) at a press conference after Rayan’s death - EFE

the hospital manager has described what happened as a negligence which has no excuse, confirming that the Gregorio Marañón takes all responsibility for the baby’s death. Both the nurse and the supervisor are understood to have been suspended from duty.

Dalilah Mimuni’s widower

Mohamed, Rayan's father, completely shattered - EFE

announced earlier this month that he would be taking legal action against the hospital’s treatment of his wife, where he said doctors failed to consider testing her for the virus despite her rising fever and difficulty in breathing.

The President of the Madrid Regional Government, Esperanza Aguirre, says she has spoken to the father, and that there will be justice for him. He has said that baby Rayán will be buried next to his mother in the Moroccan town of Mdiq.

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