Mom loses firstborn to fake hospital doctor

MANILA, Philippines–A first-time mother lost her baby on Sunday to a woman who posed as a doctor at a private hospital in Quezon City.

“I haven’t even carried or breast-fed him yet,” 25-year-old Glenda Salvador told the Inquirer on Monday, unable to stop crying as she recalled the last time she saw Cyron, her newborn son.

Salvador gave birth by caesarean section on March 5 at the Dr. Montano Ramos General Hospital, a private health facility, in Bago Bantay, Quezon City. Due to the difficult delivery, she said she was able to touch him only briefly as she could not carry him yet.

She added that she was sleeping in her hospital room at 6:35 a.m. Sunday when Cyron was taken.

Merlin Esguerra, Salvador’s mother, said a woman dressed as a doctor came into the room and told her son-in-law, Ronnel, that she needed to take the baby to check his heartbeat and give him some medicine.

Thinking that she was a real doctor, he allowed her to take his child. He only found out that she was an impostor when he went to the nurse’s station to ask about Cyron.

Ronnel said that he and the medical staff started looking for his baby, adding that he asked the hospital guards to lock the entrance to prevent the suspect from escaping.

But it was too late. When he and security personnel checked the closed-circuit television camera at the hospital entrance, they saw the woman walking out with a big bag which probably contained the baby.

Salvador, meanwhile, said she has not been able to sleep since she lost her son. “I hope my baby is safe. I just wish that whoever took him would give him back to me in good condition,” she told the Inquirer tearfully.

Dr. Montano Ramos, the hospital owner, meanwhile, doubted the family’s claim that their newborn was stolen. “The patient cannot pay [their bill] so they are now saying that,” he said in an interview.

Stressing that it was the first time in the hospital’s 18 years of operation that a baby was taken, he dared the couple to bring their newborn out of hiding. “If they do that, I’ll let them leave without paying their hospital bill,” Ramos added.

Sought for reaction, Ronnel said: “We will never do that. I come from a decent family,” adding that he has the money to pay for his wife’s hospital expenses.
Last month, a newborn baby was taken from Taguig Pateros District Hospital although the suspect was caught days after and the baby recovered safely.