Mere hours after a woman gave birth to her child, there was already a bit of drama happening within her family — and at the hospital. Through no fault of her own, a woman named Joii Brown lost the chance of having a deep connection with her baby not long after he was born. A North Florida hospital could be in for a lot of legal trouble after they gave Brown’s newborn son to another woman — who ended up breastfeeding him for a couple of minutes.
According to WESH , Joii Brown had just had her baby boy earlier in the day at Orange Park Medical Center. After being brought to her room, the nurses came to take the baby away so that he could be circumcised.
Around an hour and a half later, Brown’s son had still not been brought back to her room — and she began to wonder what was taking so long. Brown advised the nurse that her son had not been returned, and that was when the staff broke the incredibly horrifying news to the mother.
Her son had been brought into another room at the hospital, and given to the wrong mother by mistake. Little did Brown realize that it was actually much worse than a simple mix-up — as her baby had actually been breastfed by the woman that he was wrongfully brought to.
Newborn breast-fed by wrong mom in mix-up at Florida hospital https://t.co/B1DJdpenjH pic.twitter.com/DKnvmMh0QO
— WESH 2 News (@WESH) September 28, 2018
The nurses at Orange Park Medical Center told Brown that the other mother had breastfed her son “for two minutes before the mix-up was discovered.”
According to Local 10 , the nurses went right into Brown’s room and simply admitted the mistake that had been made.
“These two nurses walked in and they said that they took my child in another girl’s room and they mistakenly thought that was her child and not mine and she ended up breastfeeding him for two minutes.”
Nurses chalked it up to human error, and didn’t attempt to make any excuses for what had happened. Brown said that she was more concerned that her son could end up getting sick, as medical staff would not advise her whether or not the other woman was on any type of medication.
A spokesperson for the hospital said that they are going to do everything possible to help the family, support them, and accede to any reasonable requests. Right now, Orange Park Medical Center in North Florida is trying to figure out what they may have to do next — as Joii Brown has spoken with lawyers about pursuing legal action.
A mother always wants the greatest and first bond with their child, but that can be hard to do when a mix-up causes a stranger to breastfeed him first.
