Health-care worker arrested for allegedly murdering 8 babies in neonatal care

Hospital hallway.
(Image credit: iStockphoto)

U.K. police have arrested a health-care worker suspected of killing eight babies and attempting to murder six others.

About a year ago, detectives began looking into a hospital in Northern England that had an unnaturally high number of infant deaths. On Tuesday, they arrested a woman in connection with the investigation, The Guardian reports. The unexplained deaths of 15 babies at the Countess of Chester hospital between June 2015 and June 2016 sparked the investigation, per a police statement. It has since expanded to include 17 infant deaths and 15 "non-fatal collapses."

A May 2017 review identified insufficient staffing in the hospital's neonatal unit, and a government study showed the infant death rate at the hospital was 10 percent higher than those of similarly sized units, per The Guardian. But neither could explain the deaths, prompting the investigation.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The health-care worker's arrest isn't the end of this sensitive operation, the lead investigator said in a statement, adding that "parents of all the babies are continuing to be kept fully updated and are being supported throughout the process by specially trained officers."

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.