Nurses on trial for accidental baby poisoning

Three nurses who accidentally fed a corrosive cleaning product to hospitalised children, have begun a criminal trial in Finland.

The defendants, who deny the bodily injury charges, issued two-day-old babies with the powerful antiseptic Chlorhexidine rather than a sugar solution, as the products were kept in almost identical bottles.

The infants in question were all rushed to intensive care when the error was realised, and some had to be placed on respirators. One child was issued with an emergency baptism in hospital and is still to fully recover despite the passing of several years.

“We’re not saying that any of the nurses did it on purpose. The issue is that these injuries would not have occurred if the nurses had been careful,” district prosecutor Tapio Mäkinen said in court, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

The nurses, however, are claiming that the pharmacy which packaged the liquids is to blame. “Why isn’t the pharmacy on trial? Both solutions were put in identical bottles,” said a legal representative of one of the defendants.