A terrible medical error resulted in the death of a newborn earlier this month. On 5 October a young woman went to the maternity ward of the Layné hospital, in Mont-de-Marsan (Landes), says France 3. She is giving birth to her first child. She is a carrier of streptococcus B, a bacterium found in the vagina or digestive tract particularly in pregnant women, she has requested specific treatments, which have not been implemented.
“A good practice in this case is to administer a preventive antibiotic to avoid maternal-fetal infection, ie transmission to the child,” explains Frédéric Pigny, director of the Mont-de-Marsan Inter-municipal Hospital Center. – Pays des Sources, in comments broadcast by France 3. Unfortunately, when the midwife took care of this mother, the elements of the file in her possession did not reveal this information ”.
“Prophylactic antibiotic therapy was not carried out, he continued. And in all likelihood the child died of an infectious complication linked to this germ “.
An administrative investigation opened by the ARS
Born the day after her mother was admitted to the maternity ward, then transferred on 7 October to the university hospital in Bordeaux due to a very worrying state of health, the little girl died the same day. To the local newspaper Southwestthe director of the Mont-de-Marsan hospital says that “a malfunction in traceability” would be responsible for this failure.
At issue, the existence of two patient follow-up records, one compiled in specific maternity software, the other being a “DPI”, a computerized patient record. Here, the mention of streptococcus B was made only in one of the two issues. To avoid omissions or confusion, they should be consulted by caregivers in turn. This obviously was not done at the Mont-de-Marsan hospital. “There should have been a check of the maternity software to verify that there is a match,” regrets Frédéric Pigny.
Yet according to France 3, the Regional Health Agency, promptly alerted, asked for an analysis by the institute on the evolution of the facts. “We also asked for a series of documents to be handed over to us so that we could carry out an on-the-spot check,” explains Didier Couteau, director of ARS in the Landes. The following will be verified: the workforce at the time of the tragedy, the organization, all adverse events that occurred in the past, so that an analysis of these facts can be made in the coming weeks ”.
