A couple of days ago, I heard about something absolutely horrific happening in a hospital in France. I was taking a little time off to work on some projects at home, but I just haven’t been able to get this story out of my head.
From what I’ve gathered, a woman gave birth in the maternity ward at Jeanne-de-Flandre Children’s Hospital in the city of Lille. She also had a six-year-old boy, and witnesses say he was brought to the hospital daily by his father and was “disruptive” and allowed to roam the hospital alone starting at 7 a.m. each day. Other mothers in the ward complained, and a nurse even said something to his mother. He would often enter the rooms of other patients.
Meanwhile, on July 6, a young couple gave birth to their first child in the same hospital — a baby girl named Zayneb-Cassandra (some media outlets have reported the name as Cassandra Zayneb, but her grandmother calls her Zayneb in an interview). The little one was born via caesarian section, arriving about a month and a half early after the mother developed preeclampsia. Despite her early entrance into the world, she appeared to be thriving and doing okay, but she would most likely spend a month in the hospital’s neonatal unit.
The little boy became fascinated with this tiny infant. He reportedly said she looked like a doll and attempted to enter the room with her on more than one occasion, but was made to leave. At some point, he entered the area where the baby was located when no one was with her, somehow picked her up, and dropped her on her head. Someone heard a thud in the room and found him alone with her. She was unconscious.
The baby suffered a traumatic brain injury last Friday and never recovered. On Tuesday, she was pronounced dead.
According to the baby’s grandmother, the family was signing discharge papers for Sephora, the baby’s mother, when it happened. She said the little boy tried to lift the infant up by its diaper.
The hospital is currently conducting an internal administrative investigation, while the juvenile unit of the Lille Judicial Police Service is working with local prosecutors on a criminal investigation.
The baby’s father said he doesn’t blame the little boy or the child’s mother. “Every six-year-old is a little disruptive. I don’t blame the mother; she had just given birth… But the child should have been supervised,” he told La Parisien, a French daily newspaper. Instead, he and the baby’s mother want answers from the hospital.
“It won’t bring my daughter back… But we’re waiting for answers. There was a breach, and I’m going to fight to identify those responsible. Justice will do its job,” he added.
The parents of the little boy have not apologized to the parents of the baby. The hospital, which apparently hasn’t apologized either, released the following statement: “This human tragedy has deeply affected the staff and teams of Lille University Children’s Hospital, as well as the other families present.”
I guess I’m not as forgiving as the baby’s parents. The way I see it, both parties are to blame: the hospital and the little boy’s parents. Who in their right mind lets a six-year-old run amok in public without supervision? At the end of the day, that child is the parents’ responsibility. They can’t seem to handle that, and now they’ve brought another child into the world? The older brother should have been at home.
And why didn’t the hospital put a stop to this if was on-going? I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals with my parents over the last six or seven years, and I can’t imagine the nurses and other staff letting a six-year-old run around like that for hours on end without someone saying something. A hospital isn’t a daycare. It’s a place where people are born and die and receive life-saving treatments, and it should be respected as such. A kid running around and in and out of rooms isn’t just obnoxious, but it’s a security issue and puts people at risk in more ways than one. Unfortunately, this baby girl and her parents learned the hard way.
I’m sure there are some pieces of the story missing here — and we are talking about France here — but upon first glance, I think criminal charges should be brought against both parties. Both the parents and the hospitals were negligent. What say you?
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