Russians are shocked over reports of a nurse who put tape over babies' mouths and also taped pacifiers to their mouths to prevent their crying. The situation is undoubtedly generating more publicity because of a woman patient in the hospital who used her camera phone to video record a baby in a cot with tape over his mouth (see left).
According to the many news reports, some of which posted the video (such as BBC News and CBS), the woman at the hospital in Yekaterinburg (Russia's fifth largest city) heard the muffled cries of babies and went to see what was going on. When she saw babies with tape over their mouths, she demanded a nurse remove the tape.
The nurse said the crying was disturbing the staff from doing their work and told the patient to mind her own business, according to the BBC News. When the patient insisted, the nurse removed the tape, but later placed it back on.
Russian hospital problems
Apparently this isn't an isolated incident. The Guardian reports, "The case has provoked outrage in Russia and drawn attention to the country's overstretched health system. Nurses are badly paid and are often responsible for large numbers of patients."
The Guardian says the nurse was responsible for caring for 25 babies, many or all of whom were orphans (news reports aren't sure about that). Hospital officials have said the tape doesn't completely cover the babies' mouths and it's done not to stop crying but to prevent the pacifier from falling on the floor.
The nurse responsible has been suspended, the head of the hospital has been reprimanded and Russian prosecutors are reviewing the situation.
Camera phone's value
As Dan Gillmor, director of the Center for Citizen Media, writes in his weblog, "And once again, we’re seeing the power of the citizen journalist to force things into the open that institutions don’t want to have the rest of us know about."
Also once again we're seeing the power of camera phones -- devices that are affordable for much of the world and that are carried in situations where a regular camera or video recorder would never be available.
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