Investigators found syringe with morphine-infused milk in nurse's locker in Germany

[Sean Gallup/Getty Images]

Authorities in southwest Germany arrested an extensive care nurse on Wednesday, suspecting she had attempted to kill five newborn babies in her charge with morphine, police within the town of Ulm said.

The infants, at the least a number of them in advance born, fell simultaneously ill within the early hours of December 20, stricken by shortness of breath.

Thanks to spark off scientific intervention, all recovered and aren't expected to face long-term harm.

"In the early hours, 5 infants, elderly between at some point and one month, suffered shortness of breath almost concurrently," Ulm police leader Bernhard Weber instructed a information convention on Thursday.

Hospital government first suspected an infection, but urine tests disproved that theory, whilst at the identical time revealing lines of morphine in all five infants - even though two of them had no longer been prescribed the drug.

Morphine is robotically stocked at neonatal departments to deal with the withdrawal signs and symptoms of babies born to mothers who are addicted.

Investigators were able to finish from the time of the symptoms that the poisonings had befell throughout a night shift. They later found a syringe containing morphine-infused infant milk in the locker of one of the nurses on that shift.

The nurse, who became not identified by authorities but described as "young", was arrested after the syringe become found. She denies fees of significant bodily damage and tried killing.

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