Baby overheated in incubator

[CeCe19]

We were readmitted to hospital on day 3 for jaundice treatment. I wasn’t concerned but also needed looking at myself as I started to pass large clots. They didn’t have a light cocoon available and instead put my baby in an incubator with overhead blue lights for the phototherapy.
DH stayed with the baby while I went to maternity building to be looked at. I returned quickly to baby for her feed (was feeding every two hours). She had been in for an hour and a half and when I removed her she was bright red and boiling hot to the touch. Her mouth was too dry to feed so I dropped milk into her mouth to lubricate it and said to the nurses are you sure this is right babies must dehydrate in here! It was then that they realised they had had it on the wrong temperature; 35 degrees instead of 28. The nurses acted like it wasn’t a big deal. Didn’t do any observations and kept telling me she was fine. This also means that they missed an opportunity to treat her immediately for dehydration or heat stroke etc. But I believed all of these nurses like an idiot. The next day the doctor did his rounds and I told him of the incident - he was concerned no observations had been completed and advised an investigation would be done. All anyone can say (including consultants) is they are sure she’s fine but can’t definitely rule out long term impacts (which I take to mean brain damage). We’re at day 9 now. I’m a mess. I don’t have baby blues - I’m objectively distraught at what they did to her. We’re submitting a complaint etc but I wanted to know if anyone else has had anything similar happen? How am I meant to cope with this uncertainty? Has anyone else's baby been overheated in an incubator?

I'm so sorry you all are dealing with this! 💐💐💐

No advice but just wanted to say that what happened is awful and so dangerous, you are absolutely right to be distraught. Definitely formal complaints needed, I’d even be tempted to ask for legal advice as that is just complete negligence on the nurse’s part

My daughter was in NICU for 12 weeks when she was born. She is now 14 months old and thriving. One day I came down to see her and she was screaming, I'd never heard her so upset. She was red faced and hot to the touch. I saw the temp was higher than normal and queried it and was told they had just changed her incubator (which they did weekly for cleaning) and had forgotten to change the temp when they plugged it in. Same as you I was told she will be fine and it was brushed off. I told them I wasn't happy but didn't take it any further because I had so much else on but I wish I was stronger and complained more at the time. She did settle quite quickly in my arms at the time and it didn't have any lasting affect. They assured me it had only been a few minutes but I was so upset at the time.

As I say she is now 14 months old, smashing every milestone she meets and you would never know she was prem. It's hard and it's shit being in hospital with a poorly baby but you have to try and focus on the positives. Think about how strong your baby is, how far they have come so far. Focus on how proud you are of them, how much you love them. That will get you through. I know it sounds cliche but life is uncertain, it doesn't help to go over all the negatives. Until you are home and in a place to process it I found I almost had to park my concerns to focus on getting my little one well enough to come home. Once your home and settled there is loads of help out there for you if you want it. I have had counselling and help from different places as I was diagnosed with PTSD.

I hope your little one is ok. Keep strong, you've got this!

Jesus that's terrible op bless your little girl xxx

DD was born 5 weeks early and for the first night had to be in an incubator next to my bed, I realised during the 3rd or 4th feed after a lot of mw and docs being in and out that this time she was very hot, checked the temperature of the cot and it was a lot higher than it had been the last few times, a mw came to turn it down and brushed it off. DD is now nearly 14 and healthy so please don't worry

Thanks 💕

Thank you so much for your reply! That sounds so awful for you, but I’m so pleased (and it’s reassuring to know) that your little one is doing so well now!
It does seem that they are able to brush it off with little or no consequences because it’s most likely to happen when the parents are already stressed and exhausted.
it’s ridiculous that the incubators seem to switch on at whatever temperature they were set to the last time they were on. It’s just waiting to go horribly wrong!

How scary for you 💕. It’s crazy that it can go wrong so often and how it’s seems to be just brushed off every time. I keep thinking about how at work (I work in payroll) if there is a slight error, I get the queries and grovel profusely but can always get it corrected by the next day if not before. Whereas this is potentially so incredibly dangerous and could be life altering and you don’t even get a sorry. And by the sounds of it the hospitals are so lucky that the parents are noticing the error before the little ones are in at the wrong temperature for too long!!

Gosh that's ulsetting indeed. Surely there should be some system in place for checking and double-checking temperature in the incubator? And/or an alarm of some sort which lets them know it's too high, or at least an indicator lit up in to indicate higher temp.

I'm sorry you're having to deal with this, it sounds very traumatic at a time when you're vulnerable enough as it is.

Congratulations on your baby and I hope you find a way to make peace with what's happened.

Congratulations on the birth of your baby op.

If it makes you feel better the temperature in India often goes up to 40 (often under direct sunlight), and babies are still taken out and about during the day for 60mins or so. I’m sure it’ll be fine x

I had a baby where there were uncertainties about what the future could hold because of medical negligence, so although a totally different situation, I understand how unbearable it is that there could be an issue in future and only time with tell. Especially amongst the rollercoaster of hormones/ becoming a parent etc.

I think in your situation I would want detail from the consultant around them not being able to guarantee there won't be a problem in future. How likely do they think an issue could be? What monitoring will there be? Has there been any research into this issue? Etc etc.

If there's no research that this could cause an issue, the consultants don't intend to do further monitoring etc, but that they just can't guarantee no future issues (because they can never guarantee anything) then I'd be reassured.

So sorry this has happened to you 💛

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter OP. I hope you are doing ok.

I needed to comment on your post because I’m actually quite shocked with a few things.

I’m firstly shocked the medical team indicated to you that this incident could have had a long term impact on your child’s brain health. A neonate getting too warm in an incubator is not uncommon but certainly not something that should cause this level of concern, especially after 2 hours.

It’s no doubt that this situation was mismanaged, could have and definitely should have been avoided. And she absolutely was too hot in the incubator.

My main query is, was the consultant clear to you he was talking about the temperature not the jaundice at this point? Untreated jaundice carry a risk to the brain (not that I’m saying your baby is at risk of this as the jaundice was being treated).

I’d be asking for a consultant update. And also an update from a senior member of the nursing team - ward manager would be ideal.

I’d be wanting to know if an incident had been inputted, how hot was she, how long for and how often they checked your baby’s temperature and when it had normalised. They must’ve known 28 was the degree that maintained her temperature so what change occurred after this was confirmed. was she monitored at all?

It’s definitely worth speaking up again because it’s on your mind (rightly so) and there still seems to be lots unanswered.

I'm so sorry that's happened to your little one, and to you! It makes me so upset that they talk until they're blue in the face about SIDS , talking about checking they aren't too hot in bed etc and scare you half to death, but can brush something like this off so easily. Not saying they shouldn't warn you about SIDS , of course you need to be informed, but this is what makes so many new mums so anxious. Yet this has been brushed off in such a dismissive way 😔. I do think your Baba will be okay, I think they have to say they can't rule anything out just to cover themselves, but I would definitely complain and make sure it gets to someone in some sort of power.

WinterFaye2 - thanks so much for taking the time to reply! And it’s reassuring that you are confident that there would be no long term issues arising from the error - you sound like you know what you’re talking about!

It seems for this hospital trust that 28 degrees is the temperature used for full term babies. The consultant who saw us the following day advised that in other trusts he’d worked at they take a much more personalised approach and do regular checks in the first few hours and adjust the temperature to whatever the baby needs to maintain the ideal core.

His advice at the time was that they weren’t worried about long term effects but that I should monitor her behaviour for irritability and other symptoms etc.

It seemed that he was disappointed that observations hadn’t been taken as soon as it was realised that she had been overheated so he could have a picture of how baby had reacted/coped and that ward staff only first took her temperature/oxygen levels/heart rate etc after she had been in for a total of four hours. (At which point I’m assuming everything was within normal range because nothing was flagged to me - but I have asked them for a copy of their records).

A few days after we were discharged we visited the GP to ask their opinion if we should be asking for any specific checks on baby following the overheating and she called the hospital and spoke to a paediatrician consultant over the ward who advised that although they also weren’t too worried, that they couldn’t rule out long term effects - and this was explicitly relating to the overheating (the jaundice/bilirubin levels were quickly treated and maintained well below thresholds for further treatment).

I think that’s what’s caused me to spiral - the combination of not having observations completed at the point of overheating so I don’t know exactly how she reacted/coped and then those ‘can’t rule it out’ comments from the consultant, as the combination is just a lot of uncertainty for me.

Time and reading other awful things in the news, have both given me a lot of perspective though since it happened. So whilst we are waiting for the investigation findings and response to the complaint, it doesn’t feel as end of the world as it did originally.

Amiep1 - thank you 💕, yes you’re totally right about all the warnings that mums are given - eg no hats on baby in the house etc…I mean you don’t leave a dog in hot car either so for a hospital to treat a newborn like that it just crazy.
The complaint should go through the right channels and be seen by the right level of management and also I’ve been asked to go to a patient forum that very senior hospital bosses attend and give like a testimony of what happened and how it affected me (not just the overheating but also that I was having to go back and forth between two hospital buildings for 7 hours in order to be seen myself and get back in time to feed LO and a few other things that occurred with the care I received) so I am feeling like I will be ‘heard’ and hopefully they’ll review their practices regarding incubators so it doesn’t happen again!

This happened to my baby a couple of months ago, she was early and jaundiced so needed the tank.
She was in for almost a week but one of the incubators was faulty and the temp kept creeping up, so I was constantly dicking around with the thing to keep cool air in. I kept explaining to the nurses and I unfortunately had to go for a scan and leave baby, I asked for them to watch the incubator but when I came back the temp was upto 34 so I took her out and asked for a different incubator. I got one, luckily.
Shes a couple of months old now and smiling and recognising my voice etc so I can't see problems now, however I'll be monitoring her.
I'm sure your baba will be absolutely perfect, however it's very worrying.

Please though try to not worry, easier said than done I know 💐