Fourth baby discharged from hospital after being fed ethanol
A fourth baby was discharged from hospital on Thursday after having been fed ethanol while being treated on the neonatal intensive care ward in northern Nicosia’s emergency hospital.
A total of seven babies were fed ethanol at the hospital and one, 20-day-old Mihrimah Toymuradov, died. The north’s ‘health ministry’ said on Thursday it expects the remaining two babies to be discharged in the coming days.
Five hospital workers were arrested in connection with the incident, with all five having been released on bail last week, having been charged with causing death by negligence and carelessness.
Additionally, the nurse who had put the ethanol in the kettle to boil and the nurse who had fed the baby using the ethanol have been suspended from their duties, with an internal disciplinary investigation against the two nurses having been launched at the hospital.
Questions remain over whether the actual cause of Mihrimah Toymuradov’s death was the ethanol or a ventilator which was allegedly faulty or connected incorrectly, with investigations into the matter ongoing.
Meanwhile, accusations remain to be answered by the north’s ‘health minister’ Hakan Dincyurek. He was reported to the police over Toymuradov’s death, with it having been alleged that the incident was “concealed for a long time”.
Cyprus Turkish nurses’ and midwives’ union chairman Ibrahim Ozgocmen had said that nurses the hospital had suggested informing the families of the situation when it first came to light, but that Dincyurek “did not find this appropriate”.
Eventually, the babies’ families were not informed until a full 30 hours after Toymuradov died. Dincyurek said this was because the police would not allow him to do so, but Ozgocmen said Dincyurek “wanted to hide”.
He then added that the hospital is being operated in “an environment of chaos” and that doctors “are being forced to do many things outside their job description.”
“The whole order is broken. The health ministry is being run like a party building.”