A group of Saudi nurses who recorded themselves joking and laughing while violently squashing the face of a newborn baby have been fired.
The baby was hospitalised as a result of an infection, and its parents became aware of the horrible behaviour after footage emerged online and was shared on social media.
The video shows one of the nurses grabbing the baby by its neck and top of the head and squashing its innocent face together.
The members of staff at a maternity hospital in Taif in Saudi Arabia were identified and tracked down by authorities.
[ooyala autoplay=”true” player_id=”5df2ff5a35d24237905833bd032cd5d8″ auto=”true” width=”720″ height=”720″ pcode=”twa2oyOnjiGwU8-cvdRQbrVTiR2l” code=”A3OGt1ZDE6Unx5x1pN4CMXx7fIA2kVTo”]
Abdulhadi Al-Rabie, Taif Health Affairs spokesman, said:
The Health Affairs investigated the source of the video and was able to identify the nurses who appeared in the video and the hospital where the incident took place.
The unnamed nurses were reportedly suspended immediately after they were tracked down by authorities.
Their medical licenses have allegedly been revoked and they are banned from practising nursing in any other health departments.
The baby’s father told Saudi media the baby was hospitalised for a treatment of a urinary tract infection. He said he was completely shocked at the video being shared on social media.
Medical ethics lecturer Dr. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi was quoted in Saudi media as saying:
When it comes to children being victims, it’s a very natural reaction for people to sympathise so strongly with them because babies are voiceless and they cannot speak for themselves. Thus, adults feel the need
to speak for them.People who work in the medical sector, whether it be doctors or nurses, are under heavy scrutiny from the public. People expect them to respect their careers and responsibilities.
To the people, doctors and nurses are the epitome of goodness, so they aren’t allowed any slights or shortcomings. Their mistakes will always be exaggerated.
That doesn’t mean we are appointed as judges who pass judgment on wrongdoers. People should leave that to the authorities as they will assess the situation justly, instead of further harming the child and his parents,
in this case.
In September, we reported on a couple of employees at Naval Hospital in Jacksonville who caused online outrage after images of them flipping off babies surfaced.
The images even reportedly displayed one worker holding a newborn baby and making her ‘dance to rap music’.
One staff member even posted an image to Snapchat giving a child the middle finger with the caption: ‘How I currently feel about these mini Satans.’
The images were posted to Snapchat but later were shared on Facebook by people who received the concerning pictures.
The pictures were shared thousands of times online, and hospital authorities were notified.
A statement from the hospital’s Commanding Officer was uploaded to Facebook.
It read:
Naval Hospital Jacksonville’s Commanding Officer sends: We are aware of a video/photos posted online.
It’s outrageous, unacceptable, incredibly unprofessional, and cannot be tolerated. We have identified those involved– two staff (not nurses as reported on some sites). They have been removed from providing patient care and they will be handled by the legal system and military justice.
We’ve notified the patient’s parents.
The workers were slammed on social media, with people calling them ‘disgusting’ and ‘evil’.
The hospital in Florida is reportedly undertaking an investigation into the images.
