A Florida hospital has closed its child open heart surgeries after higher than average rate of infant deaths have been reported.
The hospital in the midst of storm, St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach made this decision after an enquiry stated that the hospital’s death rates caused by open heart surgeries is more than 3 times the national average.
CNN, television channel reported that the Heart surgeries in children done to repair heart defects when a child is born with congenital heart defects, had a substantial 12.5% mortality rate for open heart surgeries and said that at least 9 babies died after having heart operated at the hospital since 2011. A tenth baby was also left disabled.
The TV Channel also calculated the program’s death rate after asking for records and also confirming deaths independently with the parents of the babies.
However, the hospital blamed it on the media saying, “The inaccurate media reports on our program have made it significantly more challenging to build maintainable volume in our program. At this time we feel it is best to focus on other services needed by our community. We are proud of the work that has been done and the lives that have been saved.”
The mortality rate prevailed even after the chairman of an special state panel suggested in June 2014 that the medical center should stop performing open heart surgeries on babies below the age of 6 months and stop doing complex heart operations on all children.
