Official: Nurse impostor snatches ill newborn

[gldstwmn]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/10/new...ped/index.html

LUBBOCK, Texas (CNN) -- A woman posing as a nurse abducted a 3-day-old girl in need of medical attention from a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday, police said.

The African-American infant, Mychael Darthard-Dawodu, has jaundice and weighs about 6 pounds, according to the Amber Alert issued by Lubbock Police Department.

The suspect went into the mother's hospital room and "told the family they needed to take the baby for some tests and left the room," said Lubbock Police Lt. Scott Hudgens at a news conference.

Mychael was wearing a security bracelet, but it was removed, said Gwen Stafford, senior vice president of Covenant Medical Center.

"The hospital has a very sophisticated state-of-the-art security system, which is of course backed up with camera surveillance throughout the hospital," she said.

Family members and hospital staff have watched the surveillance video and say they do not recognize the woman, police said.

Stafford said later in a news conference that she would not release details about the mother because of privacy concerns, but the mother was "distraught and devastated, and again, our heart goes out to her."

One of the chief concerns would be the child's nourishment, said Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University's medical school.

"The biggest problem is that babies, within the first three days, need either mother's milk or an electrolyte solution. They can't have cow's milk," Siegel said.

Siegel also said that if they don't get nutrition quickly "there would be a life-threatening problem. Time is of the essence."

Hudgens issued an appeal to the kidnapper: "Please take [the infant] to some place safe, and drop [her] off if need be. That's our main concern right now, the safety of this child."

Police say Mychael could still be with the suspected kidnapper, who is driving a late-model red Dodge pickup truck with black trim and tinted windows.

Another person may have been in the truck when the suspect got in it with the baby, Hudgens said.

The suspected kidnapper has a medium build and was last seen wearing pink nurse's scrubs with purple and blue flowers and a gray or tan winter coat with a fur hood, police said.

She is about 5 feet 3 inches tall, African-American, in her 20s, and her hair is dyed auburn, the Amber Alert said.

Anyone with information about the kidnapping is asked to call the Lubbock Police Department at 806-775-2788, 806-775-2816 or 806-741-1000.

[gldstwmn]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/11/new...ped/index.html

Kidnapped newborn found

LUBBOCK, Texas (CNN) -- A newborn girl who was abducted Saturday morning from a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, was found Sunday in neighboring New Mexico, police and hospital officials told CNN on Sunday.

"The baby looks to be in good condition," Clovis Police Chief Dan Blair told CNN. A hospital official there said the girl is healthy.

A suspect in the infant's kidnapping has been apprehended and is in police custody, Blair said.

Police found the 4-day-old infant, who needs treatment for jaundice, at a home in Clovis, New Mexico, about 100 miles from Lubbock, Blair said.

Blair said the suspect had apparently dropped off the infant to be looked after in that home.

The suspect, a woman, was later apprehended near her own home in Clovis, and is likely to be arraigned on Monday, he said.

The police chief said the suspect matches the description in the Amber Alert and "looks very much like" the person seen in hospital surveillance video.

The baby, Mychael Darthard-Dawodu, has been checked out at a hospital in Clovis, Gwen Stafford, senior vice president of Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock, told CNN.

Stafford said she expects the baby will be reunited with her mother by early afternoon.

The infant had been wearing a security bracelet -- the kind placed on all newborns -- at the hospital in Lubbock, but the bracelet was removed, Stafford said. Police were called about 1 a.m. Saturday.

"The hospital has a very sophisticated state-of-the-art security system, which is of course backed up with camera surveillance throughout the hospital," Stafford said.

However, she acknowledged that there are gaps in hospital security.

"The impersonation of a hospital employee, we've got to work on that. All hospitals do," Stafford said. She said she believes the abductor in this case had knowledge of the hospital's security system "that an ordinary person wouldn't have."

The baby's disappearance prompted an immediate Amber alert.

The baby's family and members of the hospital's staff said they do not recognize the woman seen in the surveillance video, police said.

One immediate concern was the nourishment the child needed, Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University's medical school said Saturday.

"The biggest problem is that babies, within the first three days, need either mother's milk or an electrolyte solution -- they can't have cow's milk," Siegel told CNN. "They have to be fed with electrolyte solutions or mother's milk. If not, there would be a life-threatening problem. Time is of the essence."

[DrummerDeanna]

Thank goodness this baby was found alive and well....what a nightmare. New Mexico...figures