Buenos Aires - (AFP) - The Argentine public prosecutor announced on Saturday that a nurse had been arrested in the city of Córdoba on suspicion of links to the death of at least two newborn babies in a hospital.

Brenda Aguero, 27, was arrested on Friday by order of Prosecutor Raul Garçon, who is investigating the deaths of five healthy newborn babies in a hospital in Cordoba, 700 km northwest of Buenos Aires.

Garson told local media that the nurse has been charged with the murder of two children, pending a review of the medical records of three other newborn children.
He added that infants died as a result of "the presence of a substance in their bodies that is not compatible with life," noting that an excess of potassium was found.

The Public Prosecutor revealed that the health of eight other newborn children had deteriorated, but they did not die.

He said that the deceased children were born healthy and that their mothers were also healthy at birth.

The deaths occurred between March and June, but the case was only revealed after a complaint was filed on June 6 by the grandmother of one of the dead children.

Garson said there were "reasons to assume" the suspect was responsible.

The nurse is one of nine people suspended from work this month after an investigation was opened to determine whether children's deaths were the result of homicide, neglect or misconduct.

Three former hospital officials were charged with negligence and breach of duty.

"Our life as a family has been destroyed," Raul Aragon, the father of one of the newborns who died in hospital, told Radio Cordoba. "We were trying to overcome grief and a natural death, and now we know that they took our child from us (...) and that they killed him."