4-MONTH-OLD BABY DIES AFTER BEING VACCINATED
Ministry of Health Headquarters at Moto’otua
Photo: Supplied.
A four-month-old newborn girl who passed away last week at Motootua Hospital is the subject of an investigation by the police.
The infant allegedly died after receiving an immunization shot.
The baby's vaccination history is unknown, but the Motootua Hospital reported the incident to police on Sunday, according to Deputy Police Commissioner Papalii Monalisa Tiai Keti during an interview with Eyespy Radio regarding the matter.
According to a police complaint, the parents visited the hospital in Motootua last Saturday to receive immunizations for their 3-month-old twin children.
The parents assert that when they arrived home, one of their girls started to act unwell and had diarrhea.
Although she was taken back to the hospital immediately, she tragically passed away that evening.
The coroner has mandated a post mortem be performed in order to ascertain the cause of death, and the police are currently looking into the situation.
The Director General of Health Aiono Dr. Alec Ekeroma did not respond when Eyespy contacted him on his mobile phone.
In a press statement issued by the Ministry of Health this morning, it mentioned that the child received vaccination due at 14-weeks old as per the immunization schedule at the ministry's Motootua site. But six hours later, the infant was brought to the emergency department at the hospital in a critical condition.
The press release also stated that despite swift action by the medical team, including resuscitation, the baby unfortunately passed away, and that the nurses who administered the vaccine had followed all the standard procedures accordingly.
It also said that other infants who were vaccinated from the same batch of vaccines including the deceased baby's twin, have not had any fatal reactions.
More than 500,000 infants have received vaccinations to date, and all of them are healthy, with the exception of the two newborns who died in Safotu as a result of the nurses' improper mixing of the vaccines.