Baby swap caused by breakdown in employee communication
Baby swap caused by breakdown in employee communication
JAKARTA (JP): Police said yesterday that the recent case of
two babies being swapped at a hospital in East Jakarta was caused
by a breakdown in communication between two employees.
"When, Tuti Wahyuni, a baby label writer, asked Wiwik, a
nursery employee, if both of the babies were boys, Wiwik replied
'yes' because she thought that her colleague was asking about the
gender of the second baby," East Jakarta Police chief Lt. Col.
Gories Mere told reporters here.
Tuti then wrote "boy" on both labels and on the birth
certificates for the two babies, who were born at almost the same
time at the city-owned Pasar Rebo hospital, said Mere.
Based on data on the certificates, hospital midwife Djennis
then informed a family relative that the baby of 30-year-old
Nustita Siahaan was a boy.
Since then, Nustita, who gave birth on Aug. 20, has believed
that her baby was a boy.
However, hospital staff members only realized that the baby
was a girl after they saw her urinate, Mere said.
"The dispute started then," he said.
Nustita refused to believe the truth and would not accept the
baby girl. She left the hospital without child three days later.
She and her husband immediately reported the case to the nearby
Pasar Rebo police subprecinct.
After a series of laboratory tests and the questioning of a
number of witnesses, the police concluded that the baby girl, who
is still being kept at the hospital, belonged to Nustita, said
Mere.
"We're going to explain this misperception together with the
final laboratory test results to the family of Mrs. Nustita
Siahaan this evening and ask her to take home the abandoned baby
girl," the officer said.
According to Mere, the police's laboratory tests revealed that
the footprints of the abandoned baby girl matched those on the
birth certificate of Nustita's baby.
"From the blood test, we found that Nustita's type blood is O,
her husband's is AB and the baby's is A, which means that the
little girl is baby of the couple," Mere said.
"We have no doubt about it," he said.
When asked what the police will do if Nustita refuses to
accept the baby girl, Mere said: "Let's wait and see". (bsr)