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)