Baby Dies After Banquet Held in Thai Hospital NICU
A five-day-old baby died at an Ang Thong hospital after an autopsy revealed a skull fracture and broken ankle; parents allege staff held a banquet in the NICU while their premature infant was being treated nearby.
ANG THONG — Parents of a five-day-old baby who died at a state hospital in Ang Thong province are devastated after an autopsy reportedly found a depressed skull fracture and a broken ankle. They allege that hospital staff held a five-table Chinese banquet inside the neonatal intensive care unit while their premature infant, admitted with persistent pulmonary hypertension, was being treated nearby, separated only by transparent curtains. The mother witnessed the event on 20 July and saw catering staff entering without protective equipment; she was scolded by a nurse for approaching her child.
The baby's condition reportedly became critical overnight on 20-21 July, and the infant died of a newly acquired bloodstream infection on 21 July, just five days after birth. The hospital issued a death certificate listing pulmonary hypertension as the cause, though doctors verbally told the mother the baby died from the infection. Before discovering the death circumstances, the parents noticed a depression on the baby's skull and an unnaturally rotated ankle, raising suspicions about what caused these injuries.
Deep in suspicion, the parents contacted the Paweena Foundation for assistance. With coordination between the foundation and Samko Police Station in Ang Thong province, an official order was issued to transfer the infant's body to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Police General Hospital for autopsy. On 23 July, Paweena Hongsakul, president of the Paweena Hongsakul Foundation for Children and Women, accompanied the parents to receive the body and hear the initial autopsy findings.
