Russian investigators have opened a criminal case into the deaths of nine babies at a maternity hospital in Novokuznetsk, Siberia, during the New Year holidays, the Russian Investigative Committee said Tuesday.
The newborns died at Maternity Hospital No. 1 in the city of Novokuznetsk, the Investigative Committee said, confirming that it had opened a case on charges of causing death by negligence.
Officials from the local health ministry said most of the babies were premature and that all were battling severe intrauterine infections that were passed between mother and baby. The ministry said 234 children were born at the hospital between Dec. 1 and Jan. 11, and that 17 babies were considered to be in serious condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
The health ministry’s statement said: “Of the 17 infants in a critical condition, 16 of them were premature, including those with extremely low birth weight. All 17 had a severe intrauterine infection,” and added, “Unfortunately, nine children did not survive.”
Governor Ilya Seredyuk said the hospital’s head doctor, Vitaly Kheraskov, was suspended while the investigation is ongoing.
In a separate statement carried by Russian news agencies, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker for Russia’s upper house of parliament, described the deaths as “not only an irreparable loss for families, but a ‘tragedy for the state,’” and said the government had worked unsuccessfully to boost Russia’s falling birth rate in recent years.
“All of the right lessons must be taken from this tragedy. Conclusions must be made at a federal level. It must never be repeated,” Matviyenko said.