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Brazilian authorities are investigating the deaths of eight children at a private hospital in São Paulo after grieving parents alleged their kids contracted infections and died from sepsis.
The São Paulo Civil Police received complaints involving children who died at Salvalus Hospital, with victims ranging from newborns to 12-year-olds, the state’s Public Security Secretariat said Wednesday.
The deaths reportedly occurred beginning in January, but the cases were formally reported to authorities this week.
“The police are conducting investigations, including interviewing healthcare professionals and witnesses, and a full analysis of medical records, in order to clarify the causes of death,” the Public Security Secretariat said.
Brazilian newspaper Metropoles reported Friday that it had reviewed the death certificates of 16 children who died at the hospital this year.
One of the children was Alice de Andrades, who died April 3, three days after her first birthday, Metropoles reported.
Her mother, Leticia Ferreira, 29, told online news outlet G1 that Alice had been diagnosed with Dandy-Walker syndrome, a rare congenital brain condition, and was admitted to Salvalus in November 2025 for a procedure to insert a feeding tube into her stomach.
Ferreira said Alice was feeling well when she was admitted and was expected to spend about a week recovering in the intensive care unit. But the child developed breathing difficulties after the procedure, her mother said. During an attempt to remove her breathing tube, a stomach stitch came loose, causing fluid to leak, according to Ferreira. Alice was taken into surgery, where she suffered cardiac arrest and doctors found fluid buildup in her lungs.
Alice later underwent heart surgery after doctors discovered a ventricular septal defect, a congenital heart condition. Although her condition improved, she subsequently suffered a head injury requiring surgery to drain fluid from her brain.
In February, doctors discovered KPC bacteria in her brain. The bacteria can produce an enzyme that makes infections highly resistant to antibiotics.
Alice suffered two cardiac arrests the day before she died. Her death certificate listed Dandy-Walker syndrome, hydrocephalus, acute respiratory failure, infectious ventriculitis and sepsis of pulmonary origin as causes or contributing conditions, Metropoles reported.
Ferreira said she has found comfort knowing that São Paulo authorities are finally probing the other deaths of children at Salvalus Hospital.
“We are now left with this expectation of wanting justice for our children, of investigating the cases, of understanding what really happened,” she said. “I can only wait and hope that justice will be done.”
Hapvida, which is part of the Notre Dame Intermedic group, said in a statement that Salvalus Hospital has treated more than 1,000 children in 2026.
“The assessments carried out so far indicate distinct clinical histories, with no common infectious origin identified among the cases examined,” it said.
Eduarda Gomes, an attorney representing 30 mothers whose children died at the hospital, told G1 that the hospital was not being forthcoming by linking the deaths to the victims’ conditions.
“We hope that all of this will be investigated, that the authorities will truly seek out those responsible, and hold the doctors and the hospital accountable,” she said.