Because of hospital mix-up, mother finds out stranger breastfed her newborn
Last month in Richmond, Texas, Jessica Escobedo and Aaron Powell welcomed their third child, Melanie, into the world. But as KRIV My Fox Houston News reports, the next day the staff at Oak Bend Medical Center made a mistake: they gave the parents the wrong baby. Without looking it up, I feel confident in saying that’s something that hospitals shouldn’t do.
Ms. Escobedo told KRIV, “The next morning, whenever they brought my baby back in to me for feeding time, they actually, the nurse brought in the wrong baby.” Jessica was able to discern this because a) the name band had the wrong information on it, and b) it wasn’t her baby.
Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t end there (quick side note to assure the concerned – little Melanie is doing just fine). Escobedo and Powell learned that their daughter had been with another parent for around two hours. Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t end there, either. Escobedo and Powell learned that while Melanie was with the wrong mother, she had been breastfed. Yikes. The father Aaron Powell expressed his frustration, “This something I see in the movies, I don’t think I’d ever see my own child get handed to somebody else and they put their nipple in her mouth.”
Dr. Douglas Thibodeaux, who works at Oak Bend Medical Center told KRIV, “The agency nurse failed to follow protocol, which was checking both bands. One on the baby, and one on the mother. Furthermore, the hospital told the station that after an internal investigation, they fired the nurse and that baby Melanie was tested for diseases and was found to be clean. They are also re-training maternal ward staff to avoid incidents like this in the future.
More info: KRIV
