Mom Breastfeeds Wrong Baby in Hospital Mix-Up - Sparks HIV Scare
A mom has breastfed the wrong baby after a mix-up at a hospital, sparking complaints from both families involved in the bizarre incident. The two mothers who suffered in the incident at the Minneapolis hospital were both reportedly distressed by what had happened.
The incident occurred when a baby boy born at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis was placed by a nurse in the wrong crib in the hospital nursery, the network has reported.
That mistake led to the baby boy being handed over to the wrong mother for breastfeeding. It was only later that the mistake was realized.
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The baby boy has now been tested for HIV and hepatitis as a precaution, and must be scheduled to receive the tests every three months for the next year so that accurate tests can be taken. The baby has tested negative for both in the initial tests but must be checked for the one year period to be certain.
Those tests are deemed necessary by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recommends that any child accidentally breastfed milk from a woman who is not their mother should be tested for HIV.
The CDC confirms that it is possible to transmit HIV through breast milk, which is why it recommends women knowingly with HIV should not breastfeed their newborns. However, the CDC also confirms that the risk of transmission through breastfeeding is small, and the virus has not been known to spread to a baby through a single period of feeding.
The mix-up ruined what should have been a joyous occasion for one of the mothers. Tammy Van Dyke, who is the baby boy's real mother, has reported to ABC News that she cried all the way home.
The other mother was also reportedly distraught at the news that she had breastfed someone else's baby, and she had an anxious wait before hospital staff found her new baby, Van Dyke also told ABC.
In what may be little comfort to Van Dyke, the hospital has sent the mother a letter expressing their apologies for the mix-up and confirming that it will pay for the baby's additional test fees he must now incur.
