Babies Die From Hospital Bacteria

(Montreal, Canada) According to the medical services director at Sainte-Justine Hospital in Montreal, the deaths of six premature babies about three years ago have been attributed to bacteria in the plumbing system. Dr. Isabelle Amyot identified the bacteria as Pseudomonas aeruginosa found to fester in sinks with poor drainage.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is ubiquitous in soil and water and an opportunistic invader in humans. "The bacterium almost never infects uncompromised tissues, yet there is hardly any tissue that it cannot infect if the tissue defenses are compromised in some manner." And, of course, premature babies have undeveloped immune systems which cannot adequately fight the bacteria.

Hospital authorities have been accused of hiding the details of the infants' death, however, officials say they were just obeying the law regarding the release of information.