MONTREAL - Officials at a Montreal hospital apologized Saturday for keeping parents in the dark about the deaths of their premature babies several years ago.
But Ste-Justine Hospital was simply following the law when it declined to reveal how the infants died, its director of medical services said.
"We are very sorry for that . . . but at no moment was there anything voluntarily hidden from parents, staff or anybody else,'' Dr. Isabelle Amyot said at a news conference.
The hospital confirmed earlier this week that four premature babies died in its neo-natal ward in 2004 and 2005.
A common water-borne bacteria, pseudomonas, contributed to the deaths, Amyot said.
She said some 50 premature babies fell sick from the bacterium during outbreaks from 2002 to 2005, but there have been no infections since April 2006.
The pseudomonas cases did not progress in the same way, making it difficult to keep all parents equally informed, she said.
Several parents have reportedly complained that they were not told about the reasons for the death of their children.
"They were told that the law did not give us the permission to give them the file of their infant,'' Amyot said.
She said pressure from officials at the hospital spurred a change to the provincial law in November 2005.
The amendment granted parents of deceased children under 14 access to information about the cause of death.
Pseudomonas is a bacterium found in tap water, but it can be dangerous to premature babies because of their weak immune systems, Amyot said.
Hospital employees undertook massive clean-ups in the ward to eliminate the outbreak, she said.
The director said as soon as staff became suspicious of the outbreak's source, all tap-water contact with premature babies was stopped.
The hospital is also replacing its aging plumbing system and building a new neo-natal ward to open next year.
Meanwhile, Montreal's public health department director, Dr. John Carsley, said there was no need to tell the public about the deaths because the bacterium did not pose a widespread risk.
"First of all, this outbreak is over. It's been over for a year,'' said Carsley.
"It's highly unlikely that something like this is going to recur. Parents should not get the message that Ste-Justine is a place full of germs and danger.''
The hospital also blasted facts presented in a television report on the deaths by a Radio-Canada program that aired Friday.
Ste-Justine director general Khiem Dao said it reported the hospital is hiding information from parents.
The program also reported six deaths from pseudomonas when there were only four, Dao said.
"We seriously question the professional ethics of these same people who accuse our medical team of lack of transparency and honesty,'' he said.
"Our staff is very upset because the report did not reflect the reality of all their dedication.''
