Two families have been left devastated on what should have been the happiest day of their lives, after a hospital blunder meant their newborns were administered nitrous oxide instead of oxygen while being treated in a neo-natal resuscitation unit.
A baby died and another has suspected brain damage after the ‘laughing gas’ was accidentally given to them by staff using an incorrectly installed machine at Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital in Sydney’s south-west.
The New South Wales Health Minister Jillian Skinner said she was “profoundly sorry” the tragedy occurred.
“I deeply regret these families have suffered through such a devastating error,” she said. “NSW Health will do all it can to support them.”
Sonya Ghanem, whose newborn died, told Channel 9 of how she shook her son and asked him to “wake up, wake up” to no avail.
“I held my baby. They brang him to me at the hospital. I said ‘I want to see him.’ I come (sic) home to his room. No baby. No baby.
“Me walking, coming out of the hospital holding a capsule…I held nothing in my hand. I came empty-handed. Thinking I’d hold my newborn but no. Shocking, shocking this hospital,” she said.
The Minister confirmed no other babies have received gas from the faulty unit. She has said every medical gas outlet in a NSW Health facility installed since the Liberal Government came to power in 2011 would be reviewed to avoid further incidences.
