Nurses Mistreating Newborn Caught On Video, 3 Hospital Employees Fired

The Health Affairs in Taif, Saudi Arabia, has suspended three nurses from service after a video emerged of one of the nurses squeezing a newborn baby’s face while her two colleagues looked on and laughed in the city's Children's Hospital, reports said Thursday.

Abdulhadi Al-Rabie, Taif Health Affairs spokesman, said that a footage that went viral on social media showed the three nurses mistreating the baby. In the video, an unnamed person is seen pushing and pulling the baby’s head in order to contort its face into different positions.

Various versions of the video posted on YouTube garnered tens of thousands of views, while one had over 150,000 views, and sparked outrage online after the incident was widely reported by local media.

(The footage shown in the video linked above is graphic, so viewer discretion is advised)

"The Health Affairs investigated the source of the video and was able to identify the nurses who appeared in the video and the hospital where the incident took place. The nurses were immediately suspended by the order of Director of Taif Health Affairs Saleh Al-Muanis," Al-Rabie said.

The nurses, who have not been named, were initially suspended while authorities investigated the incident Wednesday. Hours later, reports said the nurses were fired and their medical licenses revoked, the Independent reported.

The infant's father, who remained anonymous, told the media that he was shocked to see his baby being abused in a video that was so widely circulated on social media. He explained they had admitted the baby to the hospital for a time period of 10 days as the child suffered a urinary tract infection.

The child’s father called on the Ministry of Health to take strict action against not only the three nurses, who allegedly abused his baby, but also those who violated its right by circulating the disturbing video online for public viewing.

Walid Al-Zahrani, a journalist, said the nurses must be put to trial and named in public to let them understand that “people’s lives are not a matter of joke,” according to the Saudi Gazette.

Dr. Mamdouh Eshi, who also works at the maternity hospital in Taif where the accused nurses served, described the shocking act by the qualified Saudi nurses as "a dark spot on the white coat of medical professionals."

Al-Rabie assured that the nurses will face severe penalties if the investigations proved them to be guilty of the abuses documented in the videos circulated online. According to the Saudi Gazette, several others who reacted to the incident asked for installation of surveillance cameras in different sections of all hospitals in order to help document any possible violations.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, a teacher of medical ethics at the National Guard Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, however had a different opinion and told Arab News: "When it comes to children being victims, it’s a very natural reaction for people to sympathize so strongly with them because babies are voiceless and they cannot speak for themselves; thus, adults feel the need to speak for them."

He added saying: "In retrospect, people who work in the medical sector, whether it be doctors or nurses, are under heavy scrutiny from the public. To the people, doctors and nurses are the epitome of goodness, so they aren’t allowed any slights or shortcomings; their mistakes will always be exaggerated."