Manila: Three nurses were under investigation after a couple posted on social media a picture of their son with medical tape on his mouth, allegedly placed there by a nurse to stop him from crying and disturbing 29 other infants in a medical centre in central Philippines, sources told Gulf News.
The regional office of the Commission on Human Rights has identified the three nurses who were on duty at the Cebu Puericulture Centre and Maternity House when Jasmine Noval found that a medical plaster was placed on the lips of her seven-day old son who kept crying the whole night of April 8, said Human Rights head Eta Rosales.
One of them said the tape was to put in place a pacifier for the newborn. The identities of the three nurses were not released.
Meanwhile, the regional office of the department of health has created a fact finding team to check on medical practices at the Cebu Puericulture Centre and Maternity House, said health secretary Enrique Ona.
The purpose is to find out if the medical centre violated standard hospital procedures, said Ona.
The hospital is also conducting its own investigation, Dr Raida Varona, director of Cebu Puericulture Centre and Maternity House said on TV.
The issue was hotly debated on social media after the child’s father Ryan Noval posted the photo of his forlorn son — with a tape on his mouth.
Narrating what happened, Noval said his wife Jasmine saw at the nursery that the upper lip of their son had a medical tape in the evening of May 9.
“Your baby was too noisy, so I put that [tape] over his mouth,” the father quoted the nurse as telling his wife.
He also quoted the nurse as saying, “Do it,” when ordered by the mother to peel off the tape from the baby’s mouth.
When the mother started to do it, the attending nurse extended assistance, but the baby’s skin was peeled off near the mouth, said the father in his Facebook account.
The pictures posted on Facebook were taken by the mother
When the complaining parents brought out their child last Tuesday, they paid their bills in full and did not accept the discount that the hospital offered them.
Born on May 3, the baby remained at the hospital due to infection.
