Prince George's County Hospital Under Investigation By CDC

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The neo-natal intensive care unit at a Maryland hospital is shut down for the second time in nearly three months, and this time they are calling for federal help.

Prince George's Hospital center has once again detected the bacteria Pseudomonas, which could likely be the cause of one critically-ill preemie's current illness.

"Yet again, all of us want to know and understand, how would Pseudomonas impact our NICU for the second time? How and why did this happen?"

"We have no defined cause for the source of this newest Pseudomonas presence."

The neo-natal intensive care unit shut down for the second time since august, after a potentially deadly bacteria called Pseudomonas, was detected in two critically ill preemie infants.

One of those children, officials said, is being treated, while the other is showing no sign of ill effects.

"Let there be no doubt, the safety of our patients is our number one priority," said a hospital official.

Friday, the hospital center announced it has called in experts from the United States Centers For Disease Control to help solve the mystery.

Why are infants infected again when lab tests are not turning up the bacteria? Particularly in the NICU's water system, which is the suspected source.

The entire system has been flushed and staff retrained in the wake of an earlier NICU closure back in august.

"We are puzzled given that we did the water treatment, we exceed expectations for surveillance and control practices, and here we are with this situation."

Hospital officials also admitting Friday that it is likely that two babies died in the previous outbreaks of Pseudomonas earlier this year.

"Can we say for sure, unfortunately no. We may never know conclusively."

Those two babies likely killed by Pseudomonas are among 8 critically ill children who have died in Prince George's Hospital center since January.

Representatives with the hospital say it is possible they did not act quickly enough when dealing with this matter.