switch 2 boys, #2

February 23, 1999
Web posted at: 2:20 p.m. EST (1920 GMT)

ORANGE, California (CNN) -- A new electronic security system for ensuring that newborn babies are never given to the wrong parents will be installed at a Southern California hospital where two newborn boys were accidentally switched earlier this month.

St. Joseph Hospital announced on Monday that mothers and babies will wear encoded wrist bands that cannot be removed until a scanner makes sure they match.

On February 14, new parents Iliana Bravo and Brian Lambert were allowed to leave the Orange County hospital with the wrong child, while their son Aaron was given to another mother.

It was the other mother who first noticed the mistake.

The mix-up was not an isolated incident, but part of a systemwide problem, according to hospital president Larry Ainsworth.

He said there have been three other accidental switches in the last year, but the mistakes were straightened out before the babies left the hospital. The two nurses responsible for February 14 incident have been fired.

The hospital is under investigation by California medical authorities for the baby switches.

Lire l'article @ http://edition.cnn.com/US/9902/23/switched.babies/

SHB to complete baby mix-up investigation
08/11/2002 - 10:44:30 am

The Southern Health Board has said it expects an investigation into a baby mix-up at St. Finbarr's Hospital in Cork to be completed shortly.

The error occurred when staff at the hospital mixed-up two baby boys with the same surname.

The babies ended up spending the first day of their new lives with the wrong mother.

Southern Health Board spokesperson, Tony McNamara, said that the baby blunder was down to human error.

"We have a lot of controls in place as regards identification bracelets and various measures, which obviously we will be reviewing as part of the investigation we are carrying out already.

"But at the end of the day, you can't legislate for human error and I think that is what happened in this case. It has had quite a traumatic effect on everybody, obviously on the parents and also on the staff," he said.