Breast-feeding mixup at hospital

A newborn was given to the wrong mother for breast-feeding Saturday at Winchester Hospital, a mistake that hospital administrators said yesterday was ''terrible" and ''unacceptable" and resulted in the firing of the employee responsible for the mixup.

Doctors do not anticipate any health problems arising from the error for either the baby or the woman, hospital spokesman Mark Whitney said.

A sister-in-law of the woman who was given the wrong baby said last night that the child drank some of the woman's milk but that the woman has no health problems that could hurt the child.

Hospital maternity wards typically follow strict rules that require medical personnel to match the identification bracelet on the baby with ID bands worn by the mother or father before passing the child to the parents. That policy was violated Saturday morning, Whitney said.

''It's a terrible thing for both of the families involved," Whitney said. ''I don't think we can apologize enough to the families involved. What we can do is rededicate ourselves to making sure this kind of thing can't and doesn't happen again."

The hospital filed a verbal report yesterday with the state Department of Public Health about the incident and intends to submit a written report today, Whitney said.

Winchester administrators launched an investigation into the episode over the weekend.

''The person directly involved in this case is no longer here," Whitney said. ''There's no ambiguity in the policy."

Whitney declined to say whether the fired worker was a nurse or occupied some other position. Citing patient confidentiality laws, the hospital would not identify either of the families.

The sister-in-law of the woman who was given the wrong baby said the episode started about 5 a.m. Saturday. The family does not want to be identified by name, saying it fears it will cause more stress for the woman.

The woman had given birth Thursday night to her firstborn, a boy who had difficulty nursing.

Saturday morning, the child she was given nursed with far greater vigor and appeared to have longer hair than her son. The woman alerted a hospital nurse, the sister-in-law said.

''The nurse took the baby from her arms, looked at the tags and said, 'Oops, this isn't the right baby,' " the sister-in-law said.

The nurse wheeled the baby away, the sister-in-law said, and a hospital representative later visited the woman's room.

''Somebody came into my sister-in-law's room and said: 'We need to test you for HIV; this other baby has been exposed to your milk,' which was devastating to her because she wants that milk to go to her son," the sister-in-law said.

The testing was done as a precaution, and the woman does not have HIV or other infectious diseases, the sister-in-law said.

Both families have been offered counseling, Whitney said, and the hospital expects both mothers and their newborns to be discharged routinely.

Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.