13.10.2026 15:17
In Antalya's Serik district, 13-month-old Gökçe Kaya, who developed a fever due to teething, was sent home after treatment at Serik State Hospital; the next morning, the baby, who became unwell beside her caregiver, could not be saved. In the incident, recorded as a suspicious death, the family filed a complaint, alleging that the baby was given the wrong medication and that negligence occurred at the hospital. The exact cause of death will be determined by the autopsy report.
In the Serik district of Antalya, a 13-month-old baby named Gökçe Kaya, who had been taken to the hospital with a complaint of high fever due to teething, worsened in the morning after being sent home following treatment administered at the hospital. The baby, who was urgently taken to the hospital by the caregiver who noticed the situation, lost their life. The death of the baby, whose heart was reported to have stopped when they reached the hospital, was recorded as a "suspicious death." The grieving mother and father, who buried their child in tears, went to the police station and filed a complaint, alleging that an incorrect and unusual medication treatment had been applied to their baby and that negligence had also occurred at the hospital.
The incident occurred in the Serik district in recent days. According to the allegation, the 13-month-old baby Gökçe, who was reported to have developed a fever because she was teething, was taken to Serik State Hospital by her family. Baby Gökçe, who was sent home again after treatment there, developed a fever again during the night, so her mother sponged her and gave her fever reducer. The family, who left their baby with the caregiver around 07:00 in the morning, received information 10 minutes after leaving the house that bruises had formed on the baby's body. The caregiver said the child's condition was bad and that she could not wait for the family, and took the child to the hospital. When they reached the hospital, the baby's heart was determined to have stopped; although CPR was performed for about 2.5 hours to try to revive her, it was not successful.
Baby Gökçe, who lost her life in her caregiver's arms, was buried in tears on Saturday, October 10. Following the baby's sudden death, the family went to the police station based on their claims of "wrong medication and negligence" and filed a complaint against the hospital administration. The exact cause of the baby's death will become clear after the autopsy report is completed.
THE FAMILY FILED A COMPLAINT
The grieving mother and father, who alleged that the wrong medication was given and that they were kept waiting in the garden because there was no room, filed a complaint against the healthcare personnel who were negligent. The Kaya family stated that Baby Gökçe had no chronic illness before and that in footage taken 45 minutes before they went to the emergency room she was extremely healthy and cheerful, and demanded that the authorities finalize the autopsy report and punish those who were negligent.
THE MEDICINE HAD A STRONG SMELL, MY CHILD DID NOT WANT TO DRINK IT
Mother Duygu Nur Kaya, who claimed that improper treatment was administered at the hospital and described her pain in tears, said: "We had taken our baby to the hospital; they said that around 9:30-10 in the evening she had a fever due to teething. After the doctor opened her mouth and looked, he directed us for treatment. They said a medication would be given. Then an official went to the female doctor with the paperwork and came back. Then they prepared the medication; they had half of the syringe filled with serum medication and the other half with that medication they mentioned, and had my child take it. They asked us to administer it, and we made the child drink it. Then they directed us to the observation room. When we went to the observation room, they said there was no place to sponge the child and that we had to do it outside. So we sponged the child outside, in the cold. Then we went back inside and they sent us off, saying, 'If she develops a fever, there is nothing else we can do for teething; you will continue sponging at home, you will put her in lukewarm water.'"
Mother Kaya, who stated that her baby developed a fever again during the night, continued her speech as follows:
"Around 3:00 a.m., I woke up from the heat when I touched her skin. The child was in a very bad state, crying and feverish. We immediately sponged her and gave her a fever reducer, because we could not use anything else. Until 7:00 in the morning, she slept moaning and turning from side to side. Around 7 o'clock I left the child with her caregiver. Ten minutes later, my caregiver called and said, 'There are bruises above the child's eyebrow.' She even sent me a photo of it and asked, 'Did the child fall?' I said, 'We never dropped the child; I stayed by her side until morning, she had no problems at all.' Thereupon, saying, 'This child is not normal,' she showed me the other bruises on her body; the bruises had spread suddenly. She said, 'I am going to the hospital; I cannot wait for you.' While in the car, my child stopped breathing. When I got to the hospital, they said her heart had stopped. I asked the doctor; they tried to revive her by performing heart massage for 2.5 hours, but my child did not come back. When I arrived, I saw my child's dead body. Then they sent her for an autopsy and said it was a suspicious death, because I do not know what the medication given was."
The grieving mother, who recounted that her baby had developed a fever before as well and that they had gone to the hospital again, said: "We had gone before because of teething too, and they had only given a fever reducer; no medication had been mixed into it. We had simply drawn up the fever reducer with a syringe and given it, and by the morning there was nothing left of it. This was the first time I encountered a treatment I did not know. For the first time I saw a different medication being drawn up, and this medication already smelled. Normally my child would first taste the medicine and then drink it, but she did not want to drink this. She did not vomit at all until morning. When I left her in the morning, she was not breathing and her heart had stopped. I think the wrong medication was administered to my child. She may have an allergy or another condition. They did not tell me, 'Wait, if she has an allergy, let us perform a procedure accordingly.' If they had said so, I would have waited there. They only told me, 'Go home, sponge her, put her in a lukewarm shower, there is nothing we can do.' When I went to the observation room, they said, 'There is no room here, take her outside.' I had to sponge her half-naked, with only her diaper on, in the windy and cold weather in the hospital garden. I complain about all of these. My child will not come back, but I want the matter to be investigated. I am waiting for the autopsy report; I do not know exactly what happened."
SHE WAS PURPLE ALL OVER, AS IF SHE HAD BEEN TORTURED
Father Murat Bahtiyar Kaya, who stated that his child had no chronic illness and that in videos taken shortly before going to the hospital she was extremely cheerful and energetic, made the following statements:
"My child was 13 months old. We had celebrated her birthday just last month. My child was perfectly healthy; she definitely had no chronic or pre-existing illness. On the evening of the incident, before she developed a fever, she was much healthier. We did what needed to be done at home; we gave her fever reducer and bathed her. When her fever did not go down, we went to the emergency room. The doctor examined my child, inserted a wooden stick into her mouth, and, saying, 'This is a normal fever caused by teething,' directed us to the side. My wife noticed that the nurse who was to perform the intervention took the examination form and went back to the doctor. Either the doctor had written it wrong and the nurse wanted to correct it, or he had written it correctly but a different conversation took place between them. They broke the glass tube of a medication that should normally be given intravenously or by intramuscular injection in front of our eyes and drew it into a syringe, then afterward drew fever-reducer syrup. We gave this method, which had never been done before, to the child orally. The child was disgusted by its smell and taste and did not want to drink it; we forced her to drink it, letting it spill from her mouth. When we returned home, our child moaned in agony until morning. When we went for observation, they said there was no room and left us outside in the wind. In the morning, after coming home and being discharged, we bought a fever reducer from the duty pharmacy. When the child developed a fever again around 3 a.m., we brought it down with cold compresses. Around 7:30 in the morning, before going to work, we got our child ready. When we checked the child's body, there were no bruises or contusions. Shortly after leaving the child with the caregiver, we were devastated by the phone call we received. When the caregiver said that bruises had started to appear on the child's body, we rushed out. However, the caregiver reported that the child had died in their arms before even reaching the hospital. When we reached the hospital, they intervened, but the child could not be saved. When we went inside, my child was purple beyond recognition, as if they had been tortured. We have never seen such a death scene until today. We definitely suspect wrong treatment. The doctor's and nurse's suspicious behavior at that moment and this injection treatment being administered for the first time drive us to this suspicion. We buried our child that same evening. In a video taken just 45 minutes before this tragedy occurred, my child was perfectly healthy, cheerful, and extremely energetic,” they said.
The hospital administration said that the incident had been recorded as a forensic case and that they would hand over the documents if the police requested them.
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