Posted on 01/07/2009 2:43:24 PM PST by naturalman1975
A NURSE has been suspended for leaving a premature baby with a stranger at a regional airport so she could catch a flight home to Adelaide.
The baby's distressed father, Shahzad Hassan, said his five-day-old son, Rayaan, was left with a member of the public at Port Augusta airport on Christmas Eve because the nurse was "in a hurry" to get back to Adelaide.
Children, Youth and Women's Health Service chief executive officer Gail Mondy confirmed yesterday that two staff members had been suspended and an investigation launched in the wake of this "deeply regrettable" incident, The Advertiser reports.
She said "appropriate action" would be taken following the "totally unacceptable" incident. It is believed the baby was left for about 15 minutes with a person unknown to either the parents or health authorities.
The baby's mother, Sarah Hassan, was still recovering from the birth and was driven home by her husband, leaving the baby to be transported by the nurse from the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide to Port Augusta Hospital.
Rayaan was born about six weeks early, which experts say would have left him at risk of a range of complications.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
There is no story here. They women checked with her superiors and everything was cleared. Someone is looking to win Legal Bingo.
Yeah, and that would be Shazhad. Second born son of Gomer Pyle whose eldest son was named “Shazzam”?
Do they do that stuff in Kangaroo land also??
I don’t really fault the nurse - I do query the supervisors decision.
I’m also not sure the nurse adequately discharged their duty of care (I’m a teacher, and under some High Court decisions in Australia, both teachers and nurses are held to an exceptionally high standard of care in many cases. I couldn’t leave a twelve year old with a stranger for fifteen minutes, and I doubt the standard is lower for a nurse and an infant).
Yes, they do - although minor and frivolous lawsuits tend to be described as ‘American-style’ here. It’s seen as a practice that’s being copied from the US.
The superiors should be in trouble then.
It's good to know we stil export something.
I'm not sure this case would fly here. What, exactly, would the damages be? The baby was fine. After the fact and knowing that their baby was fine, the parents got upset.
Certainly there should be punishment for the nurse/superiors, but I'm not sure a lawsuit works.
There are problems with every aspect of this situation.
First, why in the h*** were they doing a medical transport hospital to hospital via commercial flight?? Exactly what equipment was available if this preemie got into trouble?
If he was well enough to be carried in public, he was well enough to go home with the parents or at least travel with them to the next destination.
Second, yes, there is a HUGE problem handing a child off to a stranger whether this is a healthy child or a sick one. This child was the nurse’s responsibility until the next nurse arrived. Heads should roll at all levels including the supervisor. Sheesh. Common sense is all but lost on the planet.
That’s what I was wondering. Here they charter a flight or ambulance and usually a nurse and doctor go with the child. Strange all around.
I can't think of a single person who would leave a preemie with a nurse.
Are the parents retarded?
If the baby was well enough to travel at all, in this universe it belongs with the parents. Were they "too busy?"
What?
First, why in the h*** were they doing a medical transport hospital to hospital via commercial flight?? Exactly what equipment was available if this preemie got into trouble?
The baby was cleared as healthy enough to take the commercial flight - they didn't think they'd need any special equipment.
Why wasn't the baby transported by ambulance? Well, on this I'd have to speculate, but my guess is the parents weren't willing to pay for it. Australia has public health care which is close to free (alongside a decent private system as well). While, contrary to what many American conservatives think would be the case, the public system does actually work very well, one thing that is not covered by it is the cost of ambulances. Sensible Australians take out ambulance cover (it costs about $120 for a year for a family in my state) even if they have no other health insurance, but not all Australians are sensible and a lot of people who rely on the public health care system find themselves with thousands of dollars in bills if they don't have ambulance cover. It's quite common for people in this position to use alternative transport to an ambulance if they have the choice. I'm guessing that the parents made this choice in this case.
If he was well enough to be carried in public, he was well enough to go home with the parents or at least travel with them to the next destination.
The mother was ill, and had been transported home to Port Augusta by her husband. Port Augusta is about five hours drive from Adelaide (and has a very limited commercial air service). For the father to transport the baby, he would have had to have left his ill wife for at least six or so hours - the time taken to drive back to Adelaide, plus the flight back and getting the baby settled into the new hospital. I can understand why that part of it all happened.
Second, yes, there is a HUGE problem handing a child off to a stranger whether this is a healthy child or a sick one. This child was the nurse’s responsibility until the next nurse arrived. Heads should roll at all levels including the supervisor. Sheesh. Common sense is all but lost on the planet.
I agree she shouldn't have left the baby. But she also shouldn't have been put in this situation. Port Augusta Hospital was meant to have people at the airport to collect the baby from her, and they didn't. And the limited air service meant that waiting would have left her stuck there for hours. And, incidentally, given the way nurses are normally paid, she wouldn't have been paid for her time ('salaried not waged' - you don't get overtime.) Stuck in a small country town for the day on Christmas Eve, when you're not even certain you'll be able to get on the evening so you can get home to your own family for Christmas (and I don't know her circumstances - for all we know, she might have had kids of her own and given this was unexpected, there could have been issues like who was going to look after them, if she didn't get home by the end of her normal shift) and there's a teacher willing to take the baby for the fifteen minutes it will be until nursing staff get there, and all Australian teachers are issued with ID that proves they are cleared as safe and trusted to work with children, so even though you don't know the person, you have something to go on, and your supervisor says it's OK... I can understand the error in judgement.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.