NICU Nurse Ignores Dying Baby’s Alarms While Wearing Headphones, Faces No Jail Time

Headphones nearly cost a baby's life in hospital blunder
Headphones nearly cost a baby’s life in hospital blunder

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Wear your headphones responsibly!

A critically ill infant almost died at Starship Hospital‘s NICU while a neonatal nurse failed to respond to blaring alarms. It was found out that the nurse didn’t notice the repeating alarms as she was focused on her laptop while wearing headphones.

This incident first happened in 2019 but was just recently closed with a legal ruling in July 2024.

What Happened?

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit monitors are designed to produce large beeping sounds in case of emergencies for fast responses. (From: Getty Images)
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit monitors are designed to produce large beeping sounds in case of emergencies for fast responses. (From: Getty Images)

In December 2019, nurse Vickie Wade sat in a La-Z-Boy armchair, looking at her laptop screen with headphones on. Just a few feet away, a serious situation was happening, but she didn’t seem to notice.

For almost 30 seconds, an oxygen monitor alarm rang loudly. Its screen flashed “apnoea” in bright red as a 25-week-old baby’s oxygen levels dropped to a dangerous 20%.

Wade’s job was to watch and change the settings for oxygen and heart rate alarms for the babies she cared for. These alarms were set to go off after about 20 seconds without a breath, warning of a possible life-threatening problem.

But, despite this critical role, Wade remained unresponsive.

This was especially worrying because Wade’s boss later revealed that the baby had similar problems several times in the last 24 hours. So, it needed close watching.

Fortunately, another nurse, worried by Wade’s lack of response, ran to check on the baby. Then, she found the baby turning blue, with its heart rate below the average range.

Even though this was very serious, Wade didn’t want to write it down properly. When asked to record it in red writing – which is normal for serious events – she only wrote down parts of what happened.

More alarmingly, Wade was back in the armchair with her headphones on just five minutes later, as if nothing happened.

Multiple Incidents and Disciplinary Action

Sadly, this wasn’t the only time it happened.

In February 2020, just two months after the first event and after a formal meeting about her behavior, Wade was involved in a similar situation.

Another colleague had to step in to save a baby on Wade’s watch. Only this time, Wade did hear the alarms but, instead of responding, she turned them off before sitting back in an armchair.

A third incident involved a complaint from a new mother, who said Wade refused to help her hold her baby and later treated her coldly when she raised concerns.

These repeated mistakes in care led to charges of malpractice, neglect, and damaging the profession’s reputation.

In November 2021, the Health Practitioner’s Disciplinary Tribunal held a hearing to review Wade’s actions. Wade didn’t come to the hearing. Instead, she simply told the committee that said she had been doing professional development training on her laptop during the incidents.

As a result, the tribunal found that Wade’s actions were neglectful. And, they stressed that babies in the NICU are some of the most fragile patients a registered nurse can care for.

While the babies weren’t harmed, this was only because other nurses, who had their own work to do, stepped in quickly.

The ruling, released in July 2024, resulted in Wade losing her nursing license, a formal warning, and an order to pay $33,000 in legal costs.

Dangers of Headphone Use in Critical Environments

Man wearing headphones while walking outdoors.
Man wearing headphones while walking outdoors.

Wade’s case clearly shows how dangerous using headphones can be in high-risk places like a neonatal intensive care unit.

But, this is not just a problem in healthcare settings.

An example involves a case in San Francisco where a teenager was struck and killed by a train. The teenager, engrossed in music through his noise-canceling headphones, didn’t hear the train’s horn as he crossed the tracks.

This is further emphasized in a recent study by Ford.

Here, they found that people listening to music on headphones were, on average, 4.2 seconds slower to spot possible road dangers than those not using headphones.

The study included over 2,000 people from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. It used a special ‘8D’ spatial sound experience to copy real-world situations.

The effect of the simulation was big. Before the experience, 44% of people said they wouldn’t wear headphones while moving around. After experiencing the dangers firsthand, this number grew to 58%.

Also, 64% fewer people said they would regularly listen to headphones while on the road after the experience.

Potential Technological Solutions

Dr. Maria Chait, a professor of auditory cognitive neuroscience at University College London, stressed how important sound is for understanding our surroundings.

“We often hear important things happening around us before we see them,” she explained.

“While headphones can be helpful in many situations, on the road they can block out important sounds, possibly putting them – and us – in danger.”

So, as headphone use becomes more common, researchers are working on ways to reduce the risks.

For example, a team at the University of Washington has made a prototype AI system called Target Speech Hearing for noise-canceling headphones. This new technology lets users pick a specific voice that stays audible even when all other sounds are blocked out.

Demonstration of how the Target Speech Hearing system works.
Demonstration of how the Target Speech Hearing system works.

Right now, the system can only successfully isolate a targeted speaker whose voice is the main sound in the area.

However, as the system gets more training data by focusing on a particular voice, it gets better at isolating that voice. This adaptive learning approach shows promise for future improvements.

While still a test version, the researchers are talking about putting this technology in popular brands of noise-canceling earbuds and are looking into its possible use in hearing aids.

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