This makes me want to barf
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.
Re: This makes me want to barf
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.
[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>
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Aha. I wasn't walking around and never left the room, so I guess that's why I never heard of it.
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.
I just a friendly gal looking for options.