It's been more than a week since three babies at Anne Arundel Medical Center fell ill from drug poisoning, and still no one knows what happened to the three infants.
Annapolis Police Chief Joseph S. Johnson says his department is not investigating because the state's attorney's office wanted to handle the case. State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee says his office is not conducting an independent criminal investigating because it lacks the medical expertise, but he will have an investigator present to "assist" the hospital in finding the answers to what happened Jan. 31.
On that day, three babies in the critical care nursery in the downtown Annapolis hospital developed severe breathing problems. When doctors examined the infants, they found opiates in their blood.
The doctors say drugs were not passed to the infants from their mothers or from hospital equipment, but they do not know whether the drugs were given to the infants by accident or by someone trying to harm them.
Fortunately, none of the babies died. But if the results had been more tragic, Mr. Weathersbee says he still wouldn't have stepped in.
Mr. Weathersbee has never been an overzealous government prosecutor, but his lackadaisical attitude in this case is appalling.
At first he said that deaths or poisonings that occur in hospitals weren't his business unless he suspected a crime. Now he has reluctantly lent an investigator to assist the hospital in the case, but he still says he trusts Anne Arundel Medical Center as a respected community institution to do a thorough inquiry to determine whether a crime has been committed.
With Mr. Weathersbee allowing Anne Arundel Medical Center to take the lead in the investigation, the case falls to a New York lawyer hired by the hospital. A hospital spokesman said the lawyer was been retained because he specializes in finding answers to medical mysteries. He also specializes in medical malpractice and we can't help but wonder if his primary job will be to protect the hospital from a lawsuit.
The hospital should not be expected to conduct a criminal investigation on its own. That is Mr. Weathersbee's job and he ought to do it. The state's attorney is being far to complacent and trusting in leaving the leadership of this investigation up to a malpractice lawyer.