Doc freed in baby death case reports colleagues

The doctor who was cleared in the infant euthanasia case in October last year has reported her colleagues to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) for giving what turned out to be a fatal dose of the anesthetic thiopental to the prematurely born and brain damaged baby.

• Cop suspected of 'torturing' accused doc (25 Jan 12)
• Doc acquitted of having caused baby's death (21 Oct 11)
• 'She passed away after the last injection' (15 Sep 11)

According to the trade paper Läkartidningen, the woman has written in her report that several colleagues administered the drug to the baby without entering it in her medical notes.

It was the discovery of lethal levels of thiopental in the baby’s system that led to the suspicions against the doctor in the first place.

During the trial, a nurse testified that she has witnessed thiopental being administered to the little girl on two occasions and there are documents that indicate another two times she was given the drug, but this had not been entered into the baby’s medical chart.

The doctor also criticized the hospital in her report saying that she had previously brought the un-recorded doses to the attention of her superiors without them acting on it.

The case stems from the death of a 3-month-old infant girl at the Astrid Lindgren Children's hospital in Stockholm in September 2008.

The girl was terminally ill and had serious brain damage after having been born 15 weeks prematurely. The birth was complicated and the baby was born unconscious due to a lack of oxygen.

In consultations with the parents, the girl was taken off life support on September 20th, 2008.

A month later, the girl's parents filed a complaint with police alleging the newborn hadn't received proper treatment after an autopsy revealed the infant had received abnormally high doses of thiopental.

During the trial, the parents said that the care their baby had received prior to her death was "beneath contempt".

But in acquitting the doctor in October, the court said it could not be determined exactly how high a dose the baby had received, nor how the baby received the anaesthetic, and therefore the doctor could not be found guilty.

The Local/rm
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