There is nothing more painful than losing a child, even worse when it could have been prevented. These were my thoughts after I read about a group of researchers who did a study on premature babies and some of the babies ended up dead. Like I said before I enjoying reading research studies as they are sometimes able to uncover fascinating info but not when animals or human beings have to be harmed in the process.
This study in which the preemies died was led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It focused on how much oxygen “extremely preterm” babies should be given following their deliveries.
The researchers wanted to determine how much oxygen minimized the chances of blindness without increasing the risks of other problems including death or brain damage.
When asked to enroll in the study the parents were not told about the extreme risks and this was also not included in the consent form they had to sign. So you can imagine the shock when their precious babies died. Of the 654 babies receiving low levels of oxygen, 130 died, as did 107 of the 662 babies who were given high oxygen levels.
Human Research Protection was notified and it then sent a letter to the University of Alabama stating that the university should take steps to ensure consent forms in future studies outline all the risks. Not that it makes much of a difference to the parents, the damage is done.
In trying to salvage the matter, University's Vice President for research Richard Marchase said in a statement: “although slightly more babies who received lower-dose oxygen in the study died, those death rates still were lower than was usual for premature babies getting standard care at the time, but we will ensure that any future consent form clearly delineates risks to all arms of a study as completely as possible, including studies in which all arms are operating within the accepted standard of clinical care".
It seems like Mr Marchase is not very sympathetic. There is nothing to justify the loss of a precious life. Hopefully the parents of those babies will heal and be able to move on form this nightmare.
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What do you think?
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