• Tweet
• Share
• Email
• Print

    Green Bay, WI -  A Green Bay mom wants answers after she says she was taking care of the wrong baby for almost three hours at a local hospital.
   Amy Amschler reached out to NBC26 after her son, Henry, was born at Saint Mary's Hospital in Green Bay four months ago. She says she wants answers and help finding the other mother involved in this baby switch. Amy says she was told by the hospital it was a "breach in protocol." The wrong crib with the wrong baby brought to her just a day after her delivery. Now she wants to know who had her baby while she was nursing someone else's child.
   It was the big event Amy and her husband had planned and anticipated for months.
   "I was really excited," said Amy.
   When little Henry finally arrived, mom and dad's joy quickly turned to fear.
   "I remember thinking something was wrong with my son," recalls Amy.
   Amy says three officials with St. Mary's asked her guest to leave the room and then told her hospital protocol had not been followed.
   "They told me they hadn't checked the band numbers. Henry had been put in a different baby crib, so they brought back Henry's crib to me but it was a different baby," she said.
   A baby that Amy then breast fed and changed.
   "I didn't believe them at first. I didn't believe them. I think they had to tell me three times."
   When Amy looked at her hospital records, the nurses notes also indicated the other family thought something was wrong. The father of the other baby was asking why the umbilical cord was clamped again when the clamp was removed the day before. Later, the hospital put Amy through a series of tests, since she had exchanged bodily fluids with the other baby. 
  The parents wanted piece of mind, so they reached out to Mike Bray's company called Right Choice to set up a DNA test to make sure they had the right baby.
   "What they told me was that the baby was switched in the hospital for a certain amount of time and wanted to verify that the baby they took home was theirs," said Bray.
   The baby was theirs according to the tests, paid for by St. Mary's. When NBC26 reached out to St. Mary's for an interview or comment, we received this statement saying: "In order for us to be in compliance with federal HIPAA regulations it would be inappropriate for us to comment or release informaton about anyone who may or may not have been a patient at any of our hospitals."
   Amy wanted the hospital to tell her where her baby was for that three hour period and who the mother was that was given her baby.
   Amy says, "She's the only one that really understands what I feel like."
   Amy even signed a HIPAA waiver so that the hospital could talk to NBC26.   "I feel like they're just shoving it under the rug I guess," said Amy.
   Amy's hope is that this story will help her find the mother of the baby she cradled for almost three hours and be a warning to other moms to always check their baby's I.D. bracelet.
   Amy Amschler also filed a complaint against the hospital with the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services.  

To submit your story, click here.