Three Hospital Employees Suspended After Baby Receives Skull Fracture

AP ^ | March 23, 2002 | AP

[Cultural Jihad]

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Three employees at a San Jose hospital have been suspended after a newborn baby wound up on the floor with a fractured skull.

Elisa Garcia turned one week old Saturday and was released from the hospital in good condition. Doctors are monitoring her for any signs of permanent brain damage.

[Cultural Jihad]

An Isolette

[GeronL]

were they legal citizens or visa holders??

just asking, read nothing into it

[Cultural Jihad]

It is odd that a mother (Kathy Rendon) has a different last name than her week-old daughter (Elisa Garcia). Even so, we all hope she will be okay.

[goody2shooz]

OF COURSE BABIES CAN WRIGGLE!!!

I bet that little baby slid right out that big hole in the side of the isolette.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I can think of a few ways this could happen but how in the world did the staff forget to check on her, especially when she was crying? Very strange.

[GeronL]

isn't there supposed to be a nurse there at all times??

How come a maintainence worker/janitor found the baby??

[FreeperinRATcage]

Unfortunately, thats not at all odd anymore. I regularly make sure I get both the childs and mothers full name when I transport children...they're different more times then they're the same.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Those are my questions too. I don't know how their unit is set up, but a good nurse checks on her patients, especially babies.

[Frohickey]

Unfortunately, thats not at all odd anymore. I regularly make sure I get both the childs and mothers full name when I transport children...they're different more times then they're the same.

So, which name does the child get? The mother's last name or the father's last name? Does the child get the mother's last name if she's not married to the father? What is it?

[Kithlyara]

That depends on the mother, since she's the one who fills out the birth certificate. Some mothers want their baby to have the father's last name, some don't.

[latina4dubya]

this is kinda' weird to me... this is the hospital i was born in... that in itself is not weird, but i read this news tonight on FR--the same night i read a thread about my elementary school being renamed for one of the pilot's who died on 9/11...

[Cultural Jihad]

Often times there may be child support issues, where the real father is a loser. On occasion someone else steps forward and asks to be named the father, even though it means 18 years of child support.

[Cultural Jihad]

That is odd. What high school did you go to? We'll look for it in the news, too! ;)

[general_re]

This seems rather suspicious, insofar as none of the staff noticed a crying baby on the floor, and left it up to the f***ing janitor to scoop up the poor kid.

Sadly, accidents do happen from time to time, though. I know of one particular incident secondhand, in a neonatal care ward - the nurses there had a rocking chair set up, so that they could rock to sleep difficult or fussy babies. And one late night one of the nurses was rocking a baby when she fell asleep in the chair and dropped him. IIRC, he turned out to be okay, but she was understandably devastated, as were the parents at the time. Just a horrible, horrible accident that luckily turned out okay...

[alisasny]

There is no way in hell the baby fell out herself through that little window on the isolette. NONE!

[GailA]

Normally Isolette's are not enclosed units, they are just large boxes on wheels with NO tops. My grandson is only 5 months old so I know what they used to put him in, it was not what is pictured here. When they transfered him to the neo-natal unit because of his severe jaundice they put him in a unit like the one shown because it has controls for heat and air on it. The units new borns are routinely placed in are just big boxes on wheels not very tall but a new born COULD NOT roll out of one, AND they are swadled tightly in a blanket that doesn't have much play for them to wiggle. New borns are more often asleep than awake.

SOMEONE GOOFED here and it wasn't the baby.

[maica]

It is possible for a small baby to fall out of an open port on an Isolette. The mattress is usually tilted up at the head of the bed and gravity can aid a wriggler to exit and then fall. This has happened before!

Babies move, and many babies seek the security of the wall of the incubator when they are left unwrapped, as is often the situation when a newborn needs the Isolette - remembering the security of the tightly binding womb they just left. That is why swaddling is so calming to babies.

[buckalfa]

Just another example of the dangers encountered in US hopsitals. Inadequate staffing, inadequate training, more emphasis on the bottom line than in quaility and safety. I believe in free market enterprise, but that philopsphy when mixed with patient care too often leads to poor outcomes.

[Amelia]

Babies move, and many babies seek the security of the wall of the incubator when they are left unwrapped

Makes sense to me. When my son was 2-3 weeks old, he wriggled up to one end of the bassinet - startled me badly when I first woke up because from my angle the bassinet appeared empty.