The abduction of a day-old baby from a hospital in Trois-Rivieres has raised serious questions about security measures in place at hospitals.
Many are wondering how a similar incident can be prevented.
While an in-hospital abduction by a stranger is extremely rare – unprecented in Quebec, according to the Missing Children’s Network -- safety measures are in place at hospitals in an effort to protect vulnerable newborns.
More than 4,500 babies are born each year at St. Mary's Hospital, one of the busiest birthing centres in Montreal.
Strict security measures are in place to keep the newborns safe: Nurses and doctors wear name tags with photos, while cameras monitor the maternity ward, along with hospital entrance and exit doors.
There's also a special code in place in the event that a baby goes missing.
“Security personnel would go to all entrances of the hospital and physically search anyone trying to leave the institution,” explained Dr. Lucie Opatryn, director of professional services at St. Mary’s. “All elevators and exits are physically manned on the nursery floor, as well as immediate links to the police to issue an Amber Alert which fortunately has never occurred here.”
An Amber Alert is only launched under specific circumstances.
The missing person must be under 18 years old, and police need confirmation the child has been abducted.
“Then police must have reason to believe that the missing child's physical safety and life are in great risk and finally they must have enough information to locate the child or the suspect or maybe the vehicle driven by the suspect,” explained Surete du Quebec spokesperson Claude Denis.
In this case of the missing Trois-Rivieres newborn, police had a clear image of the suspect, thanks to hospital security cameras.
They also had a description of vehicle.
Most important of all -- according to the Missing Children's Network -- they had social media.
“We know that it is the quickest way to get people to react. We posted on Facebook, we tweeted the information. Within seconds there were thousands of people that came forward asking their network to get involved. It was just a wonderful show of solidarity. Everyone felt concerned about this little baby,” said Pina Arcamone of the Missing Children’s Network.
In light of the incident, Quebec's Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said future security measures at hospitals could include placing electronic tracking bracelets on newborns.
“That's a possibility. This is something that we'll address and analyze if we can do that. This is obviously something quite simple and it does the job,” he said.
He is also asking hospitals to review their security protocols in an effort to ensure nothing like this happens again.
