Baby given to wrong mom at Minneapolis hospital

MINNEAPOLIS — Officials at a Minneapolis hospital are trying to figure out how a newborn baby boy was mistakenly given to the wrong mother and briefly breast-fed.

The mix-up happened Wednesday at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Hospital spokeswoman Gloria O'Connell told the Star Tribune it's apparently the first time it's ever happened at Abbott.

O'Connell declined to release any details because of patient confidentiality. But she calls it “very serious business” and promises “there will be consequences.”

All newborns and mothers at Abbott are given matching hospital ID bracelets. The hospital spokeswoman says staff members are supposed to routinely check that the IDs match “at every step” but “apparently somebody didn't follow procedure.”

A similar incident happened earlier this year at Virginia Regional Medical Center. In April, the Mesabi Daily News reported that a nurse brought a mother the wrong newborn newborn for breast feeding a few weeks before.

At that time, VRMC CEO Bill Smith told the newspaper that the baby was with the wrong mother for "no more than three minutes" and that the hospital had "a corrective action plan so it won't happen again."

Smith told the Mesabi Daily News that the incident was a mistake by a nurse. An ID card followed the baby and included the room number of the mother. But Smith said the baby's mother had a room change.

When the nurse unknowingly entered what proved to be the wrong room, the baby's bracelet was not matched with the woman's, he said.

After the incident, VRMC added an audio check for both mother and baby, the newspaper reported. It is programmed so that if the baby and mother aren't compatible, a warning will sound.

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