Newborn Burns To Death In Hospital, Makeshift Incubator Used Domestic Heater

A newborn baby, who was born prematurely, died after suffering from burns while inside a makeshift incubator at a hospital in Bolivia. The incident took place at the Nuestra Senora del Rosario Hospital in Warnes.

According to reports, the child's mother gave birth after just 32 weeks of pregnancy. As there were no available incubators at the hospital, the staff allegedly improvised one with strong lights, the baby’s aunt Scarlett Pasabare said, according to the Sun.

The mother of the child said they could not move to any other facility as there was no space to house her and the baby.

The eight-week premature baby sustained burns to his arm and body after the staff left him unsupervised for two hours in the improvised incubator with a domestic heater, media reports said.

“I saw his little arm was burned and the baby was howling. We were told that the lights had burned him,” she said.

When doctors noticed the injuries, they tried to transfer the newborn to another hospital. However, they too could not find a space available for the child. The child died on Jan. 17 before doctors were able to attend to him at another medical facility.

“My child was born healthy, as a child they put him in an improvised incubator with strong lights and there he suffered third-degree burns,” mother Carmen Salvatierra, 15, said according to Los Tiempos. “The hospital did not have a real incubator. They burned my son, I want them to find those responsible for this negligence.”

The baby’s grandmother, María del Carmen Zabala, also told local media that the staff did not allow her to go into the room to check on the baby while he was in his make-shift incubator.

“They left him exposed to that heating for more than two hours,” she said, according to El Deber. ” I asked how he was and they told me that it was fine but that he needed an incubator and we had to find us where to take him. After midnight the baby was brought to us but they did not say it was burned. When I saw him, I got scared and asked why his arms were so red, his chest and part of his face and the pediatrician told me that his skin was so delicate that only the light had caused that.”

Vice-president of Santa Cruz Medical College, Wilfredo Anzoategui, said: “These are the conditions we are working under... We are forced to take risky decisions all the time, such as this case where a baby’s life was put in danger.”

The local authorities are investigating the hospital for negligence.