The death of 11 babies in a three-day-long period last month at a public hospital in the Dominican Republic has caused alarm. The devastating deaths occurred between Friday, Oct. 3 and Sunday, Oct. 5 at the Robert Reid Cabral Children's Hospital, the largest public children's hospital in the Dominican Republic.

According to The Associated Press, the young victims had been admitted into the intensive care and pediatric units. Three were newborns, five were less than one-year-old and the other babies were older than a year.

Rosa Elba Santana, 20, says she was shocked to learn that her twin babies were among the 11 babies who died at the state-run hospital, which treats children who live in poverty all around the country. She said she took her babies to the hospital because her daughter was suffering from stomach pains and her son appeared to have trouble breathing. The twins died at the hospital from a bacteriological infection.

"I took them to be checked, not because it was serious," the mother said, adding that "Instead of getting better, they got worse."

According to health care workers, the babies died due to the breakdown of the central oxygen system. In addition, two elevators were out of commission at the time, which delayed the installation of oxygen tanks.

However, Rosa Nieves Paulino, who was the hospital director during the time, has denied that the failure in the ICU's oxygen system was the cause of the children's death. She insists that the doctors used manual ventilators and tried several resuscitation attempts. She also stressed that the children's health situation was serious beforehand.

"The children who come to the hospital are very sick, and of those who died, some of them had been here less than 24 hours," she said.

Following the deaths, President Danilo Medina called for an investigation led by the attorney general, which found significant shortcomings at the hospital.

Results from a preliminary investigation also found that all of the children contracted infections in the hospital. The report stated that four other deaths were caused by "deficiencies in the quality" of medical care, including the failure in the system that supplies oxygen to the hospital's respirators.

As a result, Paulino and the nation's health minister were fired.

The president of the Dominican Medical College, Dr. Pedro Sing, said that the deaths are the result of the "overwhelming" number of patients that are referred to the hospital.

"The problem is that for more than 20 years they have not inserted the correct budget for all of the programs in the health system. The Robert Reid Cabral would not be so overflowing with patients if we could have primary attention that worked," he explained according to Latin Times.

Other medicial workers also concede the hospital is understaffed, underfunded and over populated.