This makes me want to barf

tawillers

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. - A woman disguised in scrubs was caught trying to steal a newborn girl from a Southern California hospital in a tote bag after sensors attached to the baby alerted employees, Garden Grove police said.

Grisel Ramirez, 48, was arrested Monday at Garden Grove Medical Center after a hospital staffer stopped her from leaving with the baby, Lt. Jeff Nightengale said during a news conference.

"At this point we don't have a solid reason why she stole the baby," Nightengale said.

Ramirez is accused of posing as a nurse who came into the room of the baby's mother and told her to take a shower before a doctor came to examine her, Nightengale said.

Once the baby's mother was out of the room, Ramirez allegedly put the newborn in a purple tie-dyed tote bag and tried to carry her out of the ward.

"An alarm went off when the baby crossed an imaginary line" in the hospital that set off a sensor, Nightengale said.

Many hospital wards have security systems where patients, such as newborns or those with Alzheimer's disease, are tagged with an electronic sensor — usually in a bracelet or anklet — that sets off an alarm when the patient leaves a certain perimeter.

Authorities would not say what kind of system the Garden Grove hospital uses.

Nightengale added that the baby was only in the bag for a short period of time. She wasn't harmed and is back in the care of her mother

Nightengale credits an alert employee and hospital policies for stopping Ramirez and saving the baby.

"The hospital staff reacted as they should," said Nightengale.

Investigators later concluded that Ramirez was the woman who walked into a hospital in Anaheim last week and asked several questions of a pregnant woman, Nightengale told KCAL-TV Monday night. The questions raised suspicions and the pregnant woman told authorities, prompting police to circulate a flier with Ramirez's picture on it, Nightengale said.

He said investigators have found no history of mental illness for Ramirez.

http://news.yahoo.com/woman-dressed-scrubs-tries-newborn-southern-california-hospital-090728977.html

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According to the video, she could face life in prison.

thejucheidea

I saw that this morning! Unbelievable.

I'm also stunned she thought that taking a newborn was easy. When I did my L&D rotation in nursing school, they showed us the security system for babies: a sensor wrapped in coban near the ankle that if it was removed, an alarm went off, and if someone unauthorized tried to take the infant into an elevator, the elevator went on lockdown. I guess not all hospitals have that, but still -- security's tight in postpartum.

AuntFlo

According to the video, she could face life in prison.  <---GOOD!

hmonkey

the hospital told us that sometimes after they cut off the baby lojack, it gets dropped in the linens.  if they forget about it, it goes out with the laundry, and when the laundry dude comes to take the linens, he gets trapped in the elevator because the lojack sets off the alarms and locks the elevator the lojack is in.

GBCK

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_wedding-woes_this-makes-me-want-to-barf?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:47Discussion:0110da58-0839-44e5-aa98-b3e243afa31aPost:fce6de27-5851-416d-ae90-38641ee25bec">Re: This makes me want to barf</a>:
[QUOTE]the hospital told us that sometimes after they cut off the baby lojack, it gets dropped in the linens.  if they forget about it, it goes out with the laundry, and when the laundry dude comes to take the linens, he gets trapped in the elevator because the lojack sets off the alarms and locks the elevator the lojack is in.
Posted by hmonkey[/QUOTE]

<div>I should not laugh at the laundry dude's misfortune.</div><div>
</div>

hmonkey

i know!  i felt bad for laughing, especially because laundry dude is met with all the security people, and then he has to dump the laundry and sort through it until they find the tiny, tiny little lojack.

jojobrn

Hey parents I take care of, this is why you have to have your baby in the crib in the hallways. Otherwise we think you are a baby thief.

Glad the Lo Jack worked.

GBCK

I figured the crib in the hallways was so I didn't drop her...but regardless, I did it.  (because why would I want to piss off the people who are gonig to be stabbing me w/ needles?)

AuntFlo

What's this crib in the hallways stuff?  I don't remember that.

GBCK

Can't carry the baby when you're walking around, the baby has to be in the rolly-crib-contraption.

If I left the room w/ the kid, no matter what and no matter who, kid was in the rolly-crib thingy.  

AuntFlo

Aha.   I wasn't walking around and never left the room, so I guess that's why I never heard of it.

zsazsa-stl

The alarm went off while I was sitting in a waiting area last week at the hospital.  I showed H the contents of my purse to prove that it wasn't me.  A nurse told us that the alarm went off because a baby rolled by an open elevator door.  That sounds really annoying.

But really, what kind of amatuer baby thief doesn't remove the lojack?  The one on SGD kept falling off.  She would have been easy to steal, but I think SS & SDIL would have caught on eventually that the baby H and I had looked a little like the one stolen from them.

jojobrn

Zsa, our system is designed to go off when it is removed from the baby as well, so either way she was going to get caught. 

Yeah Flo, if you never walked the halls, you wouldn't know about the crib rule. Part is so you don't drop the baby, bigger part is so we and security can quickly ID if someone is trying to make off with a baby.