Investigation into 3-year-old's suspicious death in Hague hospital

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is investigating the death of a 3-year-old boy in the Haga Hospital in The Hague. The boy underwent eye surgery on March 30 and died three days later, sources told De Telegraaf.

The OM confirmed the child’s death and that it was investigating but would not give details. According to the OM, the child suffered an oxygen deficiency “around” the surgery. “He was then transferred to another hospital for specific life-saving actions, but that was to no avail. The boy died there three days later,” the OM said.

The OM’s investigation is focused on how the oxygen deficiency could arise. The hospital is also investigating, as is the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate.

Jan Klein, emeritus professor of patient safety at TU Delft, called the case unique. “It is very rare for someone to die from a lack of oxygen before or during an operation,” he told the newspaper. “Either the technology failed here, or there has been human error.

Every surgery room should have an oxygen monitor that sounds an alarm if the patient isn’t getting enough oxygen, Klein said. “Furthermore, the boy’s blood pressure, pulse rate, and temperature should have been monitored. So how you could have missed all these signals is not clear to me.”

The boy must have been without oxygen for minutes. “It’s only after four or five minutes that the situation becomes life-threatening,” Klein said.