The death of a child in hospital is something that is dreaded by all hospital staff, yet it is a tragedy that occurred at Seattle Children’s Hospital in February 2020.
A 5-month-old baby named Elizabeth Vera Hutt died after contracting a mold infection from the hospital. She was born in August 2019 with a congenital heart condition and had to undergo many surgeries. What her parents didn’t know was that the hospital had closed four operating rooms on 18 May 2019 and another ten on 24 May 2019 after Aspergillus – a type of mold – was found during a routine air check. While the mold is relatively harmless to the ordinary person, it can be deadly if the spores take root in people with fragile immune systems.