Infant in critical condition after fed formula with water from well

A one-month-old infant in Orhei town suffered a clinical death after his parents used water from a local well to make formula for him, Info-Prim Neo reports. The infant suffered cardiac arrest before he was brought to the Orhei District Hospital, where doctors managed to resuscitate him. He was then transferred to the Mother and Child Center in Chisinau to improve his survival chances. “The child is in critical condition, but he survived. He has been put on a life-support machine”, said Lidia Dolghier, consultant at the Center's intensive care ward. Doctors suspect the high contents of nitrates or nitrites in the well water are to blame, but more will be known after lab results. Orhei Mayor Vitalie Colun said he wasn't informed of this case yet, adding that the greatest majority of the town's residents used safe tap water and very few fetched water from the well. He also said that no one ever complained of unsafe water in wells before. Dumitru Sireteanu, department head at the National Public Health Center, has told Info-Prim Neo that over 82% of Moldova's wells have unsafe concentrations of nitrates. However, when nitrites are found in wells, those wells must be taken out of use. Whereas nitrates may interfere with children's development in the long run, nitrates are likely to cause serious poisoning which may be deadly to young children.