Retarded Girl, 4, Electrocuted in Bizarre Accident at Hospital

SEATTLE — A mentally retarded 4-year-old girl was electrocuted by a hospital nurse who, in an “incredible and unusual” accident, plugged her heart monitor into a pump connected to a wall outlet, authorities said Thursday.

Maria Yvonne Stark of Renton died of low-voltage electrocution, the King County medical examiner’s office said. She was adopted but her foster parents were not identified.

An autopsy was performed Wednesday on the bedridden child, who had severe congenital defects that kept her in the hospital for the first two years of her life. She was recently readmitted because of a blood infection.

Viewed as Accidental

“The death is viewed as accidental and is under investigation,” a coroner’s spokesman said.

The nurse had just finished routine treatment, which included giving the child medication and weighing her, and was replacing her intravenous pump and heart monitor when the accident occurred Tuesday, officials at Children’s Orthopedic Hospital said.

The nurse inserted three separate metal prongs--connected by wires to flat, circular objects taped to the girl’s chest--into an outlet on an intravenous pump instead of the heart monitor machine, officials said.

The pump, used to administer liquids or medication, was plugged into a wall socket, and the electricity flowed through the heart monitor lines, electrocuting the child, said Dr. John Neff, the hospital medical director.

Only Person in Room

Hospital spokesman Brian Lautman said the nurse, whom he did not identify, was the only person in the room at the time of the accident.

“She has voluntarily taken herself off active duty,” Lautman said. “She worked at the hospital for a year, and was a nurse in very good standing.”

He said there were no plans to take disciplinary action against the nurse or to turn the case over to the prosecutor’s office.