Nurse foils abduction attempt at KZN hospital
Two unknown men donning department of home affairs name tags gained access to the hospital’s maternity ward with the intention of kidnapping mothers and newborns.
File image for illustrative purposes.
A nurse has been praised for intercepting an attempted abduction of mothers and their babies at Addington Hospital in Durban, reports Zululand Observer.
It is reported that on September 22, two unknown men with department of home affairs name tags gained access to the hospital’s maternity ward and told nursing staff they were collecting mothers and their newborn babies.
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The men pretended they would help the mothers register their babies as part of Government’s campaign to register all births within the first 30 days.
The nurse in charge at the time refused to release the mothers and their babies and the men left shortly afterwards.
KZN Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo described the incident as shocking and extremely concerning.
“This has all the makings of attempted human trafficking,” Dhlomo said.
“The department of health has a partnership agreement with the department of home affairs, whereby we run an online birth certificate registration system.
“This system ensures that all children born at major hospitals designated for specialised maternal and child care, such as Addington, leave the hospital with a birth certificate. This programme was launched by the minister of home affairs at Addington Hospital in 2014. So we are saying that mothers don’t need anyone to help them in this regard.”
He applauded the sister in charge of the ward at the time of the incident for following her instincts.
“It is reprehensible that people would go to such lengths, reproducing departmental name tags to commit something so heinous. The pain and suffering that could have resulted from this is unimaginable.
“We urge all security personnel, nursing staff, and mothers themselves at all our healthcare facilities to be extra vigilant because it is clear that there are unscrupulous people who are out to cause harm,” he concluded.
The department said relevant authorities have been notified of the attempted abduction.
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