Laika examines the case Linnea, the prematurely born girl who died at the Karolinska Hospital in Sweden. We meet Linnea’s parents, who are still looking for the truth about what happened in the care of their daughter.
The case Linnea received wide media attention after a doctor was accused of deliberately terminate prematurely born Linnea’s life with an overdose of sleeping pills. The doctor was acquitted.
Now for the first time we get to hear the story from the parents’ perspective. Andreas Rocksén has interviewed them and gone through all the records and other documents to help them in the search for the answer to the question: What really happened to Linnea?
Linnea’s weight at birth was no more than a packet of butter. She was small and fragile, but nevertheless still had the conditions to live a normal life. A day after the birth the medical staff commits a mistake, which probably leads to Linnea getting a brain hemorrhage. She survives, but the hemorrhage is so severe that the doctors predict severe disabilities as a result.
After a few months, Linnea developed so well that she can go home. After just a few days, the parents bring her to the hospital. The situation gets worse after that, and the doctors hold a meeting with the parents where they explain that continued care of Linnea is meaningless.
– They said she was a survivor of a miscarriage, and there was not much more to do for her, says Tommy Wiqvist, Linnea’s father.
– I went out. Such words remains, they will not disappear.
The parents finally agreed to stop the treatment of Linnea. But afterwards the feeling that one more mistake had been made at the hospital grows. Their gut feeling tells them that something happened in the last week. They request an autopsy, and the results showed that Linnea had very high levelsof thiopental in her blood: a hypnotic typically used in anesthesia. It is also used in execution by injection in several US states. But that Linnea would have received thiopental in the hospital is not noted either in her journals or the medicine lists. This leads the suspicion against the doctor, who is accused of manslaughter. During the trial, however, it is reveled that Linnea was given thiopental during her treatment. There is not explanation to whom that gave it, and why it is not noted in the records.
– You have something that gnaws at all times, you want answers to what happened, says Vanja Wiqvist Litbo, Linnea’s mother.
The parents have now notified the hospital to the Social Board.