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Tammy Van Dyke is in the process of suing Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Abbot’s Northwestern Hospital for accidentally switching her newborn son with another woman’s, and only discovering their mistake after both children had already breastfed from the wrong woman.
On that particular day, Cody Van Dyke had reportedly been wearing three different identification bracelets from the hospital – but the nurses still failed to properly check and match his ID with his mother’s.
Because of the hospital’s failings, Cody, Tammy – as well as the other mother and son pair – had to undergo extensive blood tests to ensure that no one had been exposed to infectious diseases from the contact.
It didn’t just end that day though.
The hospital also requested that Tammy bring Cody back into the hospital once every three months for the entire year following to do more, continued testing. "It was horrible," Van Dyke recalled. "Two nurses had to go in through veins in his tiny little arms."
Through this entire process, the two mothers ended up connecting with each other and sharing their feelings about the experience.
“It gave me peace of mind to talk to her,” Van Dyke admitted. “She was just as distraught as me that this happened to her.”
The hospital has since issued a formal apology for Van Dyke for their mistake, writing, “Please accept this letter with our sincerest apologies for what occurred… The hospital agrees to pay for the additional testing that you had done today and will also pay for the tests recommended for your son…”
Since this incidence, Abbot Northwestern Hospital has also enforced a new security measure regarding newborns and their mothers. The hospital will give both mother and child electronic ID bands that must match with a green light every time the two are brought together. This will, the hospital hopes, keep Van Dyke’s moment of terror from happening to other mothers.
