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Baby Given to Wrong Mom for Breast-Feeding

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 October 2004, 21:00 CDT

WINCHESTER, Mass. - A newborn at Winchester Hospital was given to the wrong mother for breast-feeding and the employee who was responsible was fired, hospital officials said.

Doctors don't anticipate health problems for either the baby or the mother involved in the mix-up Saturday morning, hospital spokesman Mark Whitney said.

"It's a terrible thing for both of the families involved," Whitney told The Boston Globe. "I don't think we can apologize enough to the families involved. What we can do is rededicate ourselves to making sure this kind of thing can't and doesn't happen again."

Hospital maternity wards typically follow strict rules that require medical personnel to match an identification bracelet on the baby with bracelets worn by the one of the parents before handing the child to the parents. That policy was violated Saturday, Whitney said.

The hospital declined to identify the employee or the mother.

The sister-in-law of the woman who was given the wrong baby said the woman noticed something was wrong when the baby nursed with greater vigor than her child and seemed to have longer hair.

A nurse took the baby from her arms and said, "Oops, this isn't the right baby," said the sister-in-law, who asked not to be identified.

An official later visited the woman and told her she had to be tested for HIV as a precaution because the baby had been exposed to her milk. The sister-in-law called that "devastating to (the woman) because she wants that milk to go to her son."

The woman does not have HIV or other infectious diseases, the sister-in-law said.

Whitney said both families have been offered counseling and the hospital expects both mothers and their newborns to be discharged routinely.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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