Published
Cut and paste of story:
Mexican pediatric ward closed after 34 babies die (1/10/2003 12:00:00 PM)
Comitan, Mexico, Jan 9 (EFE).- The government of the Mexican state of Chiapas announced Thursday that it was closing down the pediatric ward of the Comitan public hospital until the deaths of 34 babies in December are cleared up.
Chiapas Gov. Pablo Salazar said that in addition to closing down the pediatric ward, he had also requested the help of the Pan-American Health Office (PHO) in determining the cause of the deaths.
According to Comitan regional hospital deputy director Maria Helena Torres, the number of baby deaths soared in December for "unknown reasons."
She said that 24 of the dead infants were between one and 28 days old and the others between 28 and 60 days old.
Relatives of the babies attributed their deaths to medical negligence and threatened to sue the hospital.
The governor said on Thursday that he had already instructed State Attorney Mariano Herran to begin investigations to determine if the hospital was responsible in some way for the deaths.
He also said that a special ward would start operating to treat the local population for as long as the pediatric ward remains closed.
More than 100 patients from the area along the border with neighboring Guatemala are treated daily at the Comitan regional hospital. EFE
Copyright 2003 Efe. All Rights Reserved.
Efe
Some sort of virus? RSV outbreak?
oramar
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