Mystery surrounds death of two children at South Florida hospital

MIAMI (WSVN) -- Administrators at Miami Children's Hospital are investigating why two babies died while in the hospital's care.

Tuesday morning, officials held a series of meetings before making an official statement on what caused these mysterious deaths, which occurred within days of each other: "The hospital extends deepest sympathy to the families of the babies. We have taken all appropriate precautions to protect the health and safety of our patients and families. We continue to examine this matter in detail. At this time, the results of our examination are inconclusive."

The hospital has not specifically confirmed whether the two children were babies in the hospital's neonatal unit, nor there exact ages or how they died. "Due to privacy laws we are unable to give specific patient information," the hospital's statement concluded. 

According to procedure, all hospitals must report unexpected deaths like these to the Miami-Dade County Health Department for possible outbreaks and/or infectious diseases. At this time, the hospital's infectious disease team is investigating whether an infection is to blame for the deaths. They did also contact the County Health Department to inquire about any outbreaks at other hospitals. The Health Department reported that none had occurred and are not investigating at this time.

Some doctors have already said that they will not refer patients to the neonatal unit at Miami Children's Hospital until they know what's happened. But the hospital said, due to privacy laws, they will not release how the babies died.

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