Baby Thefts Surge : •  Victims Lament Govt. & Health Authority's Apathy •  Sources Say Teenagers & The Poor At High Risk

By Zeze Evans Ballah

Call it baby theft. Others say it is baby disappearances. Still, some term it baby scandal. Despite the variety of appellations, one thing is undisputable: babies are evaporating from natal beds and wards, often when the mothers are clinically dosed to sleep.

A few months ago, there occurred an uproar at a local public hospital when the father of a newborn threatened arson if his baby was not returned to him. The father, who wants to remain anonymous, said he was forced by the torturing news of the disappearance of his baby in the hospital that he fetched gasoline and threatened to burn down the health facility if he did not get his baby.

“When it appeared to everyone at the hospital that I could not be controlled, and it was clear to the hospital authorities that I was serious to carryout arson, I and the crowd around were surprised to see a nurse delivering to me my baby,” the anonymous father said. “And believe in me: I would surely have set the hospital ablaze if my baby was not delivered to me at that moment.”

The hospital authority had told the anonymous father that his newborn was dead, but refused to believe the news because he had just visited the hospital and saw the baby in fairly good health.

“My wife was too weak, and probably too unsophisticated to counter the scandal,” he said. “But I could not compromise or rest on the matter because I had already gathered that there were several reports of families losing babies on excuses from hospital authorities that the newborns were dead.”

A typical case is currently taking place at the government-owned John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital , named after former US President John F. Kennedy, where a victim of the syndicate, 15 year-year old Hawa Konneh is battling the hospital authorities there to retrieve her disappeared baby.

Hawa told Public Agenda that on April 25, 2008 she was taken to the John F. Kennedy Medical Center (JFK) to give birth, after which she claims her baby was stolen by some nurses at the hospital.

Having realized that she was pregnant, Hawa said she left her mother's home and moved to her boyfriend's house on 12 th street , Sinkor, for fear of being reprimanded by her parents.

Explaining her ordeal, Hawa said after nine months of the pregnancy, she was rushed to the JFK emergency ward for checkup and later taken to the delivery room where she gave birth to a baby boy.

After delivery, she said she was moved to another ward where she asked one of the nurses on duty about the whereabouts of her baby. But the nurse told her the baby would be sent to her later in the new room.

She stated that while in the new room, another nurse came over and injected her. She narrated that the injection dosed her to sleep until the next day after which none of the nurse could accept her plea to bring her baby over to her.

According to her, immediately after giving birth she got very ill from a swollen breast.

She said she stayed two days at the hospital without seeing her baby and was told later by a nurse that her child had died.

“How could my baby have been protected when all my friends and relations who went with me to the hospital were turned back by nurses,” Hawa lamented. “As sick as I was, and without any helper or relative to assist, I was left at the mercy of the baby rogues who took advantage of me.”

She said at the time of the news that her baby was dead, her poor post-natal health condition clawed away her agility and power to pursue the matter with the fierceness it deserved.

“They forced me out of the hospital even when I was so weak and sick,” she stated, pointing out that she went back to her boyfriend's house before an elderly lady took her to a JFK annex, commonly called small JFK, where an operation was performed on her breast.

She narrated that while going through all the pains, her mother was also admitted at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital and had nobody to help her find out exactly what happened to her baby.

Juah Tarbior, Hawa's mother told this paper that when she was discharged from the Catholic Hospital , she went to the JFK to inquire from nurses about her grandchild but was thrown out of the hospital yard by securities assigned there.

Juah said it was during argument with the securities that a lady working in the hospital confirmed the alleged stealing and selling of babies at the JFK.

Hawa said she was informed that some white people living in hotels in Monrovia were waiting to buy babies.

A reliable source confided into Public Agenda that some stolen babies are sold for as high as US$20,000.

Nurses at the JFK told Public Agenda they did not have Hawa's name in their April roster, meaning that she never went there to give birth.

When the nurses asked if she had any document, particularly hospital card, to show that she ever went to the hospital for delivery, a card that could make it easier to track her midwife, Hawa only swore that she was at the Hospital on April 25 and that she only remembered a male doctor away taking the card from her while she was in the delivery room.

Hawa's boyfriend, Jeff Cassell, also confirmed they rushed Hawa to the JFK when she was in pain and later gave birth.

One hospital source told our reporter that it is possible to be admitted at the JFK without being registered, especially at night, when most critically ill persons are handled. The source said the motive could either be criminal, as it is in the Hawa's baby case, or out of mere forgetfulness by the nurses or the appropriate staff on duty.

It can be recalled that another baby theft case was reported last week at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital .

Lorreta Mah, who is in her early 20s, reported that her baby was stolen after she had given birth.

Larreta got pregnant in the Township of West Point and was taken to the maternity clinic in the township but was rushed to the Catholic Hospital when the clinic could not handle her case.

At the Catholic Hospital , according to the report, she gave birth to twin babies (boy and girl).

One of the babies, family sources told newsmen, could not be found later.

According to mother of the evaporated baby, the hospital people said she gave birth to only one baby whom they claimed died shortly after birth.

Lorreta and family sources said it is unbelievable that the hospital authorities would say she had one child who did not live when she was earlier shown twin babies after delivery.

Catholic Hospital authorities denied Lorreta's claims, asserting that the babies shown her by nurses, one was not hers.

Most Liberians say they are petrified by the news of disappeared babies at hospitals and calling on government, which is treating the situation with indifference to act quickly.

A reliable source told this paper that stealing and selling babies is a very lucrative business that has benefited several nurses and hospital personnel.

Another source explained that rich people from the West have been visiting Liberia to buy infants to take back home.

Baby theft is on the increase in most of the hospitals in Monrovia , but most of these cases have been denied by authorities at these hospitals.

Another source told this paper that most of the women who fall prey to this crime are impoverished citizens and teenagers who and their relations lack the fortitude and know-how to make claims or unravel the baby scandals in hospitals.

One female source said women whose babies are stolen are often injected and put to sleep before their babies are taken away.

She narrated that when they gain consciousness, they are told that the babies are dead and buried, without allowing the mothers to see their dead babies.

Investigation continues