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Subject:
From:
Rachel Myr <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 16 Mar 2004 17:03:41 +0100
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Kathy Koncelik forwards a query from an acquaintance:
What steps should a mother take when a representative from the hospital
informs her that her premature infant was given another baby's milk?

The mother has been advised to get a lawyer and contact the health dept.
The first sounds a bit drastic, and the second sounds... I don't know, maybe
'indirect' is the word?  Why not tackle this head on, with the hospital
itself, in writing?

Her doc informs her that the mother whose milk it was, is healthy.

The hospital should be taking steps to test the milk (and possibly the
blood) of the mother whose milk was mistakenly given to this baby, and the
results of the test should be available to the mother whose baby got it,
IMO.  What are the chances that a mother with a dangerous infectious disease
or who is using really toxic medication or illegal drugs, is expressing milk
for her own premature or ill baby, anyway?  The hospital should be
apologizing profusely and they should be actively demonstrating to both
mothers that they do have a system in place to prevent this kind of mistake.
The hospital could be liable toward both mothers, if there was not enough
milk for the *right* baby since it was given to the *wrong* one, and the
right baby had to be fed formula, for example.

Another thing both these mothers could do is make friends, since they are
both in the same boat.  Bet that would stymie the hospital, and the
attorneys, and maybe even the health dept.

Rachel Myr
who once, many years ago before the demise of the well-baby nursery, took a
baby in for a night feed in a two-bed room and the wrong mother woke up and
took the baby, and fed it happily, and luckily the baby spit up half the
feed because her own mother awoke just afterwards and was desperate to get
her breasts emptied - and at the time we all just had a good laugh about it.
Those were the days!

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