ANKARA, Turkey -- The mother thought her baby looked healthy when he was born 1.5 months early, but staff swiftly whisked him to the neonatal intensive care unit. It was the last time Burcu Gokdeniz would see her baby alive.
The doctor in charge told her that Umut Ali's heart stopped after his health deteriorated unexpectedly. Seeing her son wrapped in a shroud 10 days after he was born was the “worst moment” of her life, the 32-year-old e-commerce specialist told The Associated Press. Gokdeniz is among hundreds of parents who have come forward seeking an investigation into the deaths of their children or other loved ones since Turkish prosecutors accused 47 doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers and other medical workers of neglect or malpractice in the deaths of 10 newborns since last year.
The medical workers say they made the best possible judgment calls while caring for the most delicate patients imaginable, and face criminal penalties for unwanted outcomes. Shattered parents say they have lost trust in the system and the cases have prompted so much outrage that demonstrators staged protests in October outside hospitals where some of the deaths occurred, hurling stones at the buildings. Prosecutors haven’t said how much the defendants allegedly earned.
After the scandal emerged, at least 350 families petitioned prosecutors, the Health Ministry or the president’s office seeking an investigation into the deaths of their loved ones, the state-run Anadolu Agency repor.