AP Features, May 5th, 2007
A 73-year-old woman died in an Italian hospital because the tubes carrying oxygen and anesthesia were switched, and authorities were investigating whether the switch was responsible for as many as seven other recent deaths, officials and news reports said Saturday.
The coronary intensive care unit at the hospital in Taranto, southern Italy, had only been inaugurated April 20 and since then some 21 people were treated. Eight of them died, however, and questions are now being raised about whether the faulty tubing may have been to blame.
"The only plausible explanation we can provide ... is that there could have been a switch in the derivation of the pipes ... so that rather than being connected to oxygen they were connected to nitrogen protoxide," Dr. Cosimo Turi, health director of the Castellaneta hospital, told Sky TG24.
The head of the local health department, Marco Urago, said the presence of the anesthesia in the oxygen tubes was "caused by an erroneous connection" of the pipes when the structure was built. He said, however, that it did not appear to be an act of sabotage, the ANSA news agency reported.
Health Minister Livia Turco ordered an investigation into the company that installed the pipes, Ossitalia srl, and also called for checks at other hospitals where its machinery was in use.
Hospital officials first discovered the problem Friday, after a 73-year-old woman being treated for a relatively minor heart arrhythmia was given what doctors thought was oxygen to help her breathe. After she was given the gas, "her ability to breathe, rather than improving, worsened," Turi said. She subsequently died.
Seven other patients have died in the past two weeks, but Turi said it was not known whether the gas problem was to blame. "We absolutely cannot define now how many and which of these deaths were attributed to the location of the gas," he said.
The hospital's coronary chief, Dr. Antonio Scarcia, was quoted in several newspapers as saying the other cases involved elderly patients with much more serious heart problems, and that those deaths were believed to have been natural.
Prosecutor Mario Barruffa was investigating possible multiple manslaughter charges.
"We have to determine who did the testing of the machinery and who used it, and then, if there were omissions or negligence, imprudence or inexperience," ANSA quoted Barruffa as saying.
Turco called for a speedy investigation and promised to collaborate with local and regional authorities. "I'm sure we will learn the truth quickly," she said.
Premier Romano Prodi also called for a full investigation, but urged the public not to forget that there was also quality health care in Italy, ANSA said.
