Seoul police on Tuesday raided a local university hospital where four newborns died successively in less than 90 minutes, suspecting medical malpractice. 

Investigators from Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency searched the premises of Ewha Womans University Medical Center in Mokdong, western Seoul, to confiscate potential evidence, including incubators, injection tools and medical records, the agency said. 

The move comes as the National Forensic Service and health authorities are scrambling to figure out what caused the babies to die suddenly on Saturday evening. 

Preliminary autopsies have found no evident reason for their deaths except abdominal bloating. Results from full autopsies will require up to a month, the NFS said. 

On Monday, the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said at least three babies may had been infected with Citrobacter freundii, a bacterium that is common in adults but can cause respiratory, urinary and blood infections in infants. 

The four babies were among 16 premature babies in the intensive care unit. Three of the four were in the same row and the other was in the next row in a section of the same unit. Each row has three incubators and each section has two rows. 

Police investigators also plan to summon six doctors and five nurses to check how the ICU was operated and whether they administered recommended dosages to the babies. 

Forensic doctors Monday raised the possibility of overdoses of IV fluid.
“While all four babies were under Total Parenteral Nutrition treatment, (receiving nutrition via injection) administering an overdose of IV can be detrimental, which often leads to the death of patients,” said Yang Kyung-moo, chief of the forensic medical team at the NFS.

However, he added that the cause could only be determined after the results of various postmortem tests are out. 

Separately from the police investigation, Ewha Womans University Medical Center formed an investigative unit comprising five medical experts, including Kim Nam-joong, a professor of infectious diseases from Seoul National University. 

Meanwhile, funerals were held for the four babies on Tuesday, without setting a funeral parlor. The bodies were each contained in a box of less than 60 by 40 centimeters. 

Health Minister Park Neung-hoo attended the parliament session Tuesday and vowed to conduct safety inspections at some 98 ICUs for newborns at major hospitals across the nation by the end of this year.

(ddd@heraldcorp.com)