News

A Mother Was Accidentally Given The Wrong Baby After Giving Birth

by Sean Levinson

An Australian couple is having a very difficult time bonding with their child because they were initially handed the wrong baby in the hospital.

Daily Mail reports that Samantha and Nick Stuhlener welcomed their son, Levi, on Jan. 6, 2015, at St. Vincent's Private Hospital in Melbourne.

The baby that was brought back to Stuhlener's hospital bed, however, was not her own.

About 45 minutes had gone by before staff members realized they had given the Stuhleners someone else's child.

The accident has been attributed to a nurse who didn't check the ID wristbands of the two children, according to Yahoo News 7.

The Stuhleners were told Levi remained in the hospital's newborn nursery while they were with the other child, but the couple does not believe this to be true.

Samantha Stuhlener said to Daily Mail,

I don't know, was he with another mother?

Her suspicion is largely due to the hospital's refusal to present an incident report containing crucial details about their son's location during the mistake.

St. Vincent's CEO Ian Grisold released a public apology and personally expressed his sorrow to the Stuhleners.

Grisold stated,

It is extremely regrettable and staff and myself [are] guttered by the incident. We unreservedly apologize and take full responsibility.

Grisold claims that even though the Stuhleners were with the other child for almost an hour, they apparently made little if any physical contact.

He said,

At no time was either baby picked up, held or fed by anyone other than their parents.

The Stuhlener family also dealt with a few difficulties at home.

Levi would not breastfeed and appeared "unsettled" throughout the first few weeks of his life, his mother claims.

She also added that she had a harder time forming a maternal relationship with Levi than she did with her first child.

The hospital would go on to make another blunder in an attempt to win the forgiveness of the other child's family.

An apology letter in addition to $500 worth of vouchers were supposed to be sent to this couple but instead went to the Stuhleners.

Samantha Stuhlener has talked to the parents of the other child and says they have "also been left traumatized."

St. Vincent's now requires two staff members to check the wristbands of newborns and their mothers before taking infants out of the nursery.

Citations: New mother horrified to learn she spent 45 minutes with the WRONG newborn after a nurse failed to read hospital name tags properly (Daily Mail), Parents traumatised after maternity ward mixup (Yahoo News)