Hospital Switches Babies Again
April 6, 2009 by Eliza Ferree
Filed under Baby Care, Breastfeeding, Health, Labor & Delivery, News & Media
Another hospital has accidentally given the wrong baby to a mom that once again breastfed the child. The difference this time was the color and one family is deeply disturbed by the events and I can totally understand why. In this case it was a caucasion baby and a half African American baby.
IMG: Sxc.hu (Not the baby)
The Portsmouth Hospital of New Hampshire had this to say:
“We deeply regret that this event occurred,” Notis said, “and we are continuing to work closely with and support the family involved. We launched a full investigation immediately after it occurred and are taking steps to avoid the occurrence of a similar event in the future.”
Why did no one say anything and how did they not notice? Apparently the breastfeeding mother, the one that actually did the feeding noticed the baby but thought the hospital staff would think she was crazy if she mentioned that this baby was not hers. So instead of saying anything she went ahead and fed the child. The baby’s parents are now getting it tested for HIV and Hepatitis C as it is possible to transfer the disease through breastmilk.
The father that is testing his child would like his family to remain anonymous, however he did go on television to tell about his story. Here’s what he said:
“We point blank asked her, ‘did you not know your were taking care of our baby?’ and her response was, ‘I thought it wasn’t my baby, but I didn’t want to sound crazy so I didn’t say anything,’” the man told television station WMUR.
What’s worse is this probably could’ve been prevented had they allowed the baby to stay in the room with the mother, but due to complactions after the birth she took a sleeping pill and they wouldn’t let her own mother stay in the room with her and the baby. They had to send their newborn out to the nursery, reluctantly and now they have to deal with this. There are two different accounts right now as how long the baby was in the other woman’s care, she stated a significant amount of time, the baby’s father states it took 10-20 minutes for the baby to latch on to mom during breastfeeding and the hospital staff is now saying only 5. Either way itwas enough to cause a tremendous amount of tension and break a lot of trust.
Hopefully they’ll hear that the baby is perfectly fine and that there are no other issues with the child.
OMG! Okay we’ve all seen the movies of the week. Heck every day after school (ABC after school) special showcase some horrible story like this beyond all imagination. To hear that this woman breastfed a child that wasn’t hers. I’m floored! I mean I was uncomfortable enough (first time around) feeding my own child; can’t imagine how I’d feel latching on another persons baby! And doctors and hospitals wonder why more and more women are wanting to have their babies at home. Jeez.
I wasn’t too comfortable with this statement:
“The difference this time was the color”…wtf. Really?