January 31, 2005

Investigation to determine if baby’s death related to hospital construction

MONTREAL

A major children’s hospital has launched an investigation into the death of a premature infant killed by a mould infection in an intensive care unit.

A spokeswoman for the Ste-Justine hospital said an autopsy on the baby, born at 29 weeks, confirmed the presence of an infectious mould disease.

Tests will determine the exact nature of the infection, said Dr. Lucie Poitras, adding air-quality tests will shed more light on the tragedy.

“We are presently investigating the environment,” Poitras told all-news channel LCN.

“What happened concerns us greatly,” added Poitras, director of professional services.

The neo-natal unit where the baby died on Jan. 10 is being cleaned and sterilized, the hospital said in a statement.

Ste-Justine said it’s too soon to say whether hospital renovations were a factor in the baby’s death.

“Concerning the construction that’s being done near the unit, the hospital’s administration considers it’s premature to link it to this event,” the statement said.

The hospital has contacted parents of children who have been treated in the intensive-care unit since the beginning of the year.

The cleaning and sterilization will last for several days and babies will be moved to another unit, the hospital said.

The hospital was given $20 million by the Quebec government to enlarge the neo-natal unit.

The city’s public health department published a guide in 2002 for hospital directors, aimed at averting the spread of mould during renovation and construction work.

Air-quality engineering teams have decontaminated several Quebec hospitals following mould infestations in the last several years.

A wing of the Ste-Justine hospital previously reported mould problems in its ventilation system in 2002.

Specialists intervened quickly to clean it up and no children were reported to be affected.

The Canadian Press

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