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13/06/2008
Mother Awarded Payout Over 'Baby Kidnap' Blunder
An innocent mother has been awarded a five-figure sum in damages after being quizzed about a 'baby kidnapping' during what turned out to be a training exercise.
The incident was blamed on 'mistaken identity' during an exercise designed to foil any attempts to remove newborn infants from a hospital.
Clare Bowker, 37, of Four Oaks, West Midlands, suffered post traumatic stress disorder after she was stopped and questioned about a 'kidnapped baby' in December 2005.
Ms Bowker had just attended the hospital for an appointment at Good Hope Hospital, in Sutton Coldfield, when she was stopped.
Her ordeal began when she took baby Hannah with her for her elder daughter Hollie's routine eye appointment at the hospital.
When she left the Rectory Road grounds on December 9 and got into her car she was confronted by staff who said she needed to verify who she was at the maternity ward.
Ms Bowker was quizzed by police who searched her bag while hospital staff took 40 minutes to confirm that the child - her baby daughter Hannah - was actually hers.
The Heart of England NHS Trust has apologised to Ms Bowker who has also now left her job because of the incident.
She only found out that it was a training exercise when she later rang the hospital to see if the 'stolen baby' had been found.
Ms Bowker took legal action against the Trust who agreed to the payout.
The mother told the BBC: "It shouldn't have happened. It's somebody's incompetence and it affected me a lot more that I could ever have predicted."
A spokeswoman for Good Hope Hospital said that the safety of babies is "very important" and that "routine exercises" are regularly carried out to prevent babies from being taken from the unit.
She said that the case of Ms Bowker was that of "mistaken identity" and that the mother had been compensated for her "inconvenience and embarrassment".
(DS)
The incident was blamed on 'mistaken identity' during an exercise designed to foil any attempts to remove newborn infants from a hospital.
Clare Bowker, 37, of Four Oaks, West Midlands, suffered post traumatic stress disorder after she was stopped and questioned about a 'kidnapped baby' in December 2005.
Ms Bowker had just attended the hospital for an appointment at Good Hope Hospital, in Sutton Coldfield, when she was stopped.
Her ordeal began when she took baby Hannah with her for her elder daughter Hollie's routine eye appointment at the hospital.
When she left the Rectory Road grounds on December 9 and got into her car she was confronted by staff who said she needed to verify who she was at the maternity ward.
Ms Bowker was quizzed by police who searched her bag while hospital staff took 40 minutes to confirm that the child - her baby daughter Hannah - was actually hers.
The Heart of England NHS Trust has apologised to Ms Bowker who has also now left her job because of the incident.
She only found out that it was a training exercise when she later rang the hospital to see if the 'stolen baby' had been found.
Ms Bowker took legal action against the Trust who agreed to the payout.
The mother told the BBC: "It shouldn't have happened. It's somebody's incompetence and it affected me a lot more that I could ever have predicted."
A spokeswoman for Good Hope Hospital said that the safety of babies is "very important" and that "routine exercises" are regularly carried out to prevent babies from being taken from the unit.
She said that the case of Ms Bowker was that of "mistaken identity" and that the mother had been compensated for her "inconvenience and embarrassment".
(DS)
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