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View Full Version : After Switching Babies, Hospital Leaves News on Answering Machine


Polly
04-15-2008, 12:00 PM
You gotta be kidding me!

http://news.aol.com/health/story/ar/_a/hospital-sued-after-babies-switched/20080414100009990001?icid=100214839x2500359930x250 0110345

By CARYN ROUSSEAU,AP
Posted: 2008-04-14 10:00:53
CHICAGO (April 11) - Sitting in her hospital room in Marion, Ill., 17-year-old Kassie Hopkins knew something was wrong when she looked at the newborn officials told her she had given birth to a day before.

Mary Jo Bathon had the same feeling but left Heartland Regional Medical Center with the hospital's assurance that the baby she had was her son. She headed home to Pinckeyville, an hour away, making a stop to buy baby supplies.

But in fact, hospital workers had inadvertently switched the babies.

They sent Bathon home with Hopkins' son, leaving 17-year-old Hopkins in her hospital room, worried about her son's whereabouts, attorney John Womick said Friday after suing on the women's behalf in Williamson County Court.

"Kassie, she's having trouble communicating how she feels," Womick said Friday. "All she can do pretty much is cry. She's now paranoid. She's very concerned about something happening to her baby."

The hospital realized the mix-up and called Bathon at home the same day, March 28, and left a message on her answering machine asking her to return to Marion to retrieve her real son, Womick said.

Womick said he wants the court to require the hospital to investigate what led to the switch and take steps to make sure it does not happen again. The lawsuits seek monetary damages of more than $50,000 for each woman and a jury trial.

The lawsuits name Heartland Regional Medical Center and its parent company, Community Health Systems Inc., of Franklin, Tenn., as defendants...

Christi
04-15-2008, 05:27 PM
How ridiculous! And how did they do DNA tests so quickly on the babies? Don't you need authorization for that??

Maleah
04-15-2008, 05:28 PM
Oh man! That's insane.

Kristi
04-17-2008, 05:42 AM
Wow that is crazy

Polly
04-17-2008, 07:12 AM
I'm betting that the hospital staff felt that the 17 year-old mom was "too immature" to become a mom and therefore did not listen to her worries that there was something "off" about the baby they were sending her home with-very common. My middle and high school students used to complain about this; apparently, they felt they were always treated with a lack of respect for their age and income level (majority of them were on welfare) on the maternity ward at the hospital.

Stacy
04-21-2008, 09:22 AM
I'm betting that the hospital staff felt that the 17 year-old mom was "too immature" to become a mom and therefore did not listen to her worries that there was something "off" about the baby they were sending her home with-very common. My middle and high school students used to complain about this; apparently, they felt they were always treated with a lack of respect for their age and income level (majority of them were on welfare) on the maternity ward at the hospital.

I agree... When I was 17 and had Mike I was basically ingnored and had to beg to even have him in my room with me!

freebiemom
04-21-2008, 09:29 AM
I was so scared something would happen to my babies that me or DH were with them at all times while at the hospital. They went nowhere without one of us. I was too paranoid that they would somehow get switched - and the fact that their little id thingys on their legs fell off so easily didn't help matters.

I'm just glad this was discovered so quickly and the babies reunited with their mothers.