A German nurse has been taken for questioning by the German police and prosecutors on the accusation of poisoning five premature babies with morphine in a hospital.
At the university hospital of Ulm in Southern Germany, five premature babies between one day and one month of age suddenly began experiencing life-threatening breathing difficulties on December 20 2019, according to reports by CNN.
The suspect, a nurse at the Hospital was on duty that morning and has been taken into police custody. She is being investigated on five counts of attempted manslaughter and for causing grievous bodily harm.
Fortunately, all the babies survived and report by the police says no further health problems are expected.
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A press conference held by the police revealed that a search through the staff members’ lockers at the hospital, the police found a syringe containing breast milk among the nurse’s possessions. Police also confirmed through forensic tests, the syringe was found to have been laced with morphine.
Ulm’s chief public prosecutor, Christof Lehr, on Thursday stated that the nurse denies having given the babies morphine.
The statement reads:
“In the early morning hours of December 20, 2019, five premature babies housed in a room in the Clinic for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine in Ulm almost simultaneously suffered from life-threatening breathing problems, which, fortunately, thanks to the immediate intervention of the hospital staff, remained without consequences according to current medical assessments,” investigating authorities said in a statement.
The hospital alerted local police after morphine residue was found in the babies’ urine samples.
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