14 DAY TRIAL // A mix-up at a Minneapolis hospital's maternity ward leaves one mother angry, as she has been breastfeeding the wrong baby.
Tammy Van Dyke's son Cody was switched to another bassinet, and the nurse noticed their mistake after two hours. The incident occurred at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, on Wednesday, December 5.
"You put your baby in the nursery, not even 48-hours old, and you think they're safe. [...] I'm holding it together. I'm just in disbelief, and it was like I was in a dream, a bad dream, and I couldn't get it to stop," Van Dyke tells reporters, in an interview with ABC News.
Fortunately, they were able to switch the babies back in time, as Tammy was getting ready to take Cody home. In a few hours’ time, he would have been released from the hospital.
Cody had to undergo blood testing for HIV and hepatitis, following the incident. The initial test results came back negative, but the investigations will be repeated once every three months, for the first year of his life.
"I will be thankful to God when this year's over and he's cleared all his health tests and we don't have to think about this again," the mother says.
The hospital have since apologized, offering to pay for the extra testing the baby might need, following their mistake.
"Please accept this letter with our sincerest apologies for what occurred today at the hospital, that in the nursery your newborn son was placed in the wrong bassinette and then was taken to the wrong mother and breastfed," their statement reads.
"As an obstetrician, I have personally seen verification of the infant's identifying name band matched correctly with the mother's on hundreds of occasions. It is extremely unfortunate that was not the case this time," Chief Clinical Officer of Allina Health, Dr. Penny Wheeler, adds.