Authorities are probing whether the inappropriate use of an electric blanket by an obstetrics clinic in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊) was the cause of a day-old girl suffering second-degree burns to her lower body.
The Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily reported yesterday that the baby was delivered at the Happy Babies Obstetrics and Pediatrics Clinic at about 9:45am on Monday. She was allegedly burned by an electric blanket two hours later.
The clinic waited until 1:50pm on Monday to notify the infant’s family of her injuries, which cover 20 percent of her body and include several large blisters on her thighs.
Photo: Wen Yu-te, Taipei Times, from a press release
The clinic attributed the accident solely to the blanket, the report said.
The newborn was later transferred to the National Taiwan University Hospital for emergency treatment. As of press time yesterday, authorities were still trying to ascertain the cause of her burns.
The clinic’s consulting physician Huang Kuang-ta (黃光大) later yesterday said that clinic staff members wrapped the newborn in the blanket for just 15 minutes because her body temperature was slightly lower than normal and did not rise even after being put under a heat lamp. Huang said after clinic staff removed the blanket, the baby’s skin seemed normal, with a pinkish color, and that she was taken to her mother to breastfeed at 10:49am.
The clinic said staff later again put the infant under a heat lamp to keep her warm and that they did not notice any blisters on the baby’s body until a nurse changed her diaper at 1:17pm.
“We have been using the same brand of electric blankets for several years without an accident,” the clinic said, but added that it has requested the manufacturer to examine the product in question to determine the cause of the burns.
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