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By TRACI CARL : Associated Press Writer
Jan 25, 2003 : 1:25 pm ET
COMITAN, Mexico --
Alberto Perez was devastated when his baby boy died at
Comitan's hospital. He soon found out he was not alone.
"Your baby died too?" someone in the waiting room
asked.
"Did you hear about the twins?" another parent piped
in.
Before long, 13 families were united in grief and
anger over the deaths of infants at the small hospital. And when they went
as a group to the prosecutor's office to see about filing charges, they
found 12 more families doing the same.
Inadequate health care has long been a fact of life
in the neediest regions of Mexico and other developing countries, a
condition stoically accepted by the poor. But the anger that boiled over in
Comitan has touched a nerve in Mexico, setting off a national media furor,
an official investigation and demands for better care across the country.
Health officials say the 26 infant deaths in December
were twice the usual number for the hospital in this southern town.
Officials removed the top two administrators, have exhumed almost all the
babies' bodies for tests, and are not ruling out criminal charges.
"We want the truth," Perez said about the death of
his son Jose and the others. "We want an explanation that is clear and makes
sense."
A preliminary investigation found no signs of an
epidemic or virus -- only desperate poverty and a rudimentary health system.
Located 40 miles from the border with Guatemala,
Comitan's hospital has fewer than 500 employees while serving nearly a half
million people, mostly rural Indians who have to travel hours by foot or bus
to get even basic care.
The region is one of Mexico's poorest, and has always
suffered from a higher infant mortality rate than the national rate of 3
percent. Residents rely on herbal medicine, midwives and even witchcraft in
trying to stay healthy.
Infant deaths are even worse in Africa and parts of
Asia. In the southern African nation of Mozambique, for example, 13 percent
of all infants died at birth in 1999, four times Mexico's rate.
But the deaths in Comitan have shaken many Mexicans
into speaking out.
In the central city of Queretaro, lawmaker Enrique
Becerra is denouncing the deaths of 24 babies in October at a maternity
hospital there.
On Tuesday, Indians in the mountain town of Las
Margaritas, 25 miles east of Comitan, seized their local clinic and demanded
better access to doctors and medicine.
"If a baby is born here, it is born sick," Carmelina
Aguilar said hours after she and dozens of others agreed to leave the clinic
in return for talks with authorities. "The same thing that happened in
Comitan is going to happen here."
For Irma Cruz, it already has.
Nine months into her pregnancy, she went to the
clinic in Las Margaritas complaining of sharp pains, but was told to go
home. When the contractions didn't stop, she was sent to Comitan, where she
gave birth to a little girl. The baby died three days later, on Dec. 17.
Sitting in her wooden shack wallpapered with
newspapers to keep out the cold, Cruz complained that the hospital staff
treated her poorly, serving her breakfast with a cockroach in the food.
"I asked for a glass of water, but they just ignored
me," she said. "I asked for a clean gown because the one I had was dirty,
but they told me to wait for the next shift."
Other parents have similar complaints. They said
there were no doctors over Christmas, when many of the babies became sick
and died. And they said staff members ate Christmas dinner and opened
presents in the neonatal unit, next to their children's incubators.
Raul Belmonte, the dismissed hospital director,
didn't deny the charges, but said he was powerless to improve the situation.
On Christmas Day, he said, doctors who were scheduled to work simply didn't
come in.
"What am I supposed to do -- put out a sign that
says: 'Don't get sick. Don't take vacation,'" he said.
But he denied the hospital was responsible for the
deaths, arguing that a sharp increase in births and infant emergencies was
behind the statistical rise. "We didn't kill anyone," he said.
The hospital blamed many of the deaths on cerebral
hemorrhaging and infections. A preliminary investigation found that
complications from premature births and poor prenatal care were often at the
root of the babies' problems.
Margarita Nava, one of several federal health
officials sent to help the hospital make improvements, said the deaths
weren't necessarily a result of negligence.
"This could happen in any place with the same
conditions," she said.
Health officials complain they are expected to work
miracles with few resources and must try to help patients who often wait to
seek treatment.
In Comitan, acting hospital director Bruno Ley said
many of the 26 babies who died in December arrived with severe lung
problems. "They came in practically suffocating," he said.
Many of the parents dispute that. They said their
babies were born relatively healthy and became sick at the hospital.
Since December, the neonatal unit has been cleared
and its door taped shut. A handwritten sign reads: "Temporarily out of
service."
But premature babies are still fighting for life in
the next room, where reporters and medical officials walk in and out without
surgical masks or robes.
"It's not great but it's adequate," said pediatrician
Francisco Dominguez. He pointed to a corner incubator with an infant born at
seven months. "That baby isn't going to survive."
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