Nine people are under investigation for suspected culpable homicide over the death last week of a newborn baby, judicial sources said Monday. The baby passed away in an ambulance on the way to Ragusa because there was no place for her in hospitals in the Sicilian city of Catania. The people under investigation are doctors and medical staff at the private clinic where the baby, Nicole, was born and from the newborn intensive care departments that said they had no place for her, the sources said. Inspectors sent to Catania by Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin, meanwhile, on Monday had a meeting with local officials, including Regional Executive Health Councillor Lucia Borsellino. Nicole was born in a private clinic in Catania on Wednesday night, but when she developed breathing complications medical staff quickly tried to move her to a neonatal intensive care facility in the same city.
However, they were too crowded so an ambulance then tried to rush the newborn to the intensive care facility at a pediatric hospital in Ragusa.
The two cities lie about 105 kilometres apart by road.
The baby died en route even as doctors in the ambulance tried to revive her.
On Thursday Italian President Sergio Mattarella phoned Sicilian Governor Rosario Crocetta to say how "incredulous" he was at the case.
Mattarella, elected last month to replace Giorgio Napolitano, is Italy's first president from Sicily.
Lorenzin said Friday that: "Things like this aren't supposed to happen".
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