‘Newborn gang’ faces over 500 years for hospital scam deaths

ISTANBUL

The prosecutor has sought over 500 years in prison for the ringleaders of a criminal syndicate in Istanbul, accused of unnecessarily placing newborns in intensive care units for financial gain, resulting in several infant deaths.

The investigation into the gang, first revealed in May, has concluded, and the Büyükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has finalized the indictment.

The 494-page document revealed that instead of being transferred to hospitals where babies would receive appropriate care, infants were sent to facilities chosen by suspects who cooperated with the emergency service, selecting hospitals that were deemed "profitable for the organization."

According to the indictment, the primary aim of the group was not the recovery of the infants, but rather to increase their financial gains by directing them to more expensive treatments, such as intensive care, thereby extorting greater funds from the Social Security Institution.

The profits were shared among the gang members, many of whom were health care workers.

The indictment noted that "through these fraudulent practices, the suspects multiplied the revenue generated from neonatal intensive care units three to four times over."

However, due to the extended and unnecessary stays in the infection-prone neonatal units, some infants tragically lost their lives.

At least 12 deaths have been attributed to these practices, while many surviving infants now suffer from severe, lifelong health conditions.

"My daughter spent three nights in intensive care," one grieving mother told daily Milliyet, whose newborn died in the unit.

"Afterward, the doctor told me, ‘This place is for one-month-old babies. If your baby stays here, she will die. Find another hospital.’ We couldn’t find one. The doctor in charge of the ICU then recommended a hospital, explaining that the nightly cost for intensive care was 7,000 Turkish liras and that our daughter would need two weeks of treatment. We accepted."

The indictment, which refers to the gang as the "Newborn crime organization" in the public domain, detailed how the gang, operating with minimal doctors across multiple hospitals, provided healthcare predominantly through nurses and nurse assistants, leading to the spike in infant mortality.

In many instances, nurses introduced themselves as doctors to babies’ families and administered medical treatments without the hospital doctors’ knowledge, with fatal consequences for the infants.

Phone conversations intercepted by the authorities revealed that syndicate members were aware that some infants were nearing death and took steps to ensure they would not be held accountable for the fatalities.

The prosecutor demanded sentences of up to 582 years for the ringleader, doctor Fırat Sarı, and two other key figures. Eighteen additional suspects, including doctors, nurses and healthcare workers, face prison terms ranging from 10 to 437 years for their roles in the infants' deaths, under charges of "deliberate homicide by omission."

The ring also threatened the prosecutor investigating the case with death, even offering $100,000 to a suspect to carry out the assassination.