Woman sues for 30K after nursing stranger's baby

[Liberal_in_LA]

Woman sues after nursing stranger's baby
Published: Feb. 13, 2010 at 6:29 PM

An Illinois woman who says she was given the wrong baby to breastfeed while recovering from childbirth in hospital has filed a lawsuit, court records indicate.

A day after Jennifer Spiegel, 33, gave birth to her son in January 2008, a hospital worker told her "Your baby wants you," and handed her a newborn to nurse, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Saturday.

But it wasn't her son, she says in a negligence lawsuit filed against Evanston Hospital.

A nurse who discovered the mix-up said, 'The baby you're feeding isn't yours,'" Spiegel recalled. "It was just an awful, internal feeling."

Although no one was injured or sickened, Spiegel says the hospital bears responsibility for the mix-up. The suit seeks at least $30,000 in damages, the Sun-Times said.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/02/13/Woman-sues-after-nursing-strangers-baby/UPI-37491266103763/

[Laf.La.Dem.]

1. WOW - $30,000.00

I think that may be a little high (NO - WAY TOO HIGH):mad:

[madmax]

2. What a crock

No one was hurt or permanently damaged. Get a freakin life woman.

[KittyWampus]

3. this thread has some potential! I think the proper resolution is the other new mom

should have been invited to feed HER newborn!

[aquart]

4. A stranger's baby got all the protection HER baby needed.

Who fed HER child?

[Bettie]

49. No, sorry.

There were plenty of antibodies and protection left for her child.

The benefits of breastfeeding are ongoing.

[Randall Flagg]

5. Damn. That's one expensive pint of milk.

All sorts of ways you could take this.

[aquart]

6. But it wasn't just milk. It was antibodies and other necessary stuff, wasn't it?

[Javaman]

9. Antibodies, huh? for 30k a pop, she charges more than the pharma corps!

Thank you thank you, I'll be here all week!

[Randall Flagg]

12. I don't believe the antibodies and other "necessary stuff" disappear after the 1st feeding.

:)

[redqueen]

35. The colostrum is available for longer than a few feedings...

unless her child was given to some other mother who was a smoker or something, or not fed at all, I'm not sure what the big deal is.

[FedUpWithIt All]

52. Colostrum lasts for days, far longer than one feeding. n/t

[Statistical]

61. Real that must have been a hungry baby if he/she consumed all the antibodies.

Not sure if you understand how this works but the milk is replenished and with it antibody supply.

[Hannah Bell]

74. they're not all in the first feeding. colostrum, if that's what you're thinking of, is

produced for about the first 3-5 days.

and "antibodies & stuff" are produced throughout breast-feeding.

[Warpy]

14. Pint? Try two to four ounces

Newborns aren't big eaters at first.

While the woman might have had an "ick" factor, it's really too bad she couldn't have realized she'd given the other kid a gift and left it at that.

She doesn't have a case. She would have to prove injury and no one was injured.

[Bettie]

47. Actually, those first few feedings are more like

a tablespoon or two.

Really, this should be a non-issue, this woman is looking for a pay day for a strange, but not harmful situation.

And I say this as a mom who breastfed three little ones (not all at once though!)

[Warpy]

71. Yeah, I know: nibble, nibble, sleep

This woman is trying to win the legal lottery. She might have found a shyster to file the case but it will be thrown out.

Like I said, injury has to be proven and there was none.

[Bettie]

88. Well, the shyster is her husband

So she didn't have to look far....and he barely had to chase the ambulance at all on this one!

[TexasObserver]

73. The mother most certainly does have a case for negligence and battery.

The hospital was negligent in handling the babies. It doesn't take any understanding of law to know that the handling was negligent. They should never lose track of a newborn, and losing track of one is negligence. If you'd like to explain why it isn't, I'd like to see that.

The contact of the baby to the woman's breast was a battery, as that term is understood in the law of civil causes of action. It was an offensive physical contact to the plaintiff caused by the nurse.

The ONLY issue is how much the damages would be in dollars. It's not a big case, but it's a valid case against the hospital and the nurse. $30,000 seems a bit much, but we would have to compare that to the charges of the hospital. Something on the order of $5000-10,000 sounds more likely. One day's hospital charges would be a reasonable amount, and if the hospital can sew this up for that amount, they should do it immediately.

[Bluebear]

7. Mom should learn to share :)

I have no idea, obviously, what being a breastfeeding mom is like, but no harm was done except for her 'awful, internal feeling', yes?

[CrispyQ]

15. Agreed.

An "awful, internal feeling" for nurturing an infant? Shameful.

[Fridays Child]

19. Awful internal feeling futures may shoot sky high, if she wins.

I'm calling my broker!

[SoCalDem]

25. My best friend and I fed each other's babies..

I think this Mom's issue is the colostrum that her baby did not get, but the "real" milk comes in about day 3, so one feeding did not really deprive her own child of much...

She wants a "payday"...

http://www.babies.sutterhealth.org/breastfeeding/bf_production.html

Colostrum

Colostrum, the early milk made by your breasts, is usually present until after the fifth or sixth month of pregnancy. Once your baby is born, it is present in small amounts for the first three days to match the small size of your baby’s stomach. Most babies do not need additional nutrition during this time. Begin breastfeeding as soon as possible after giving birth. Breastfeed at least 8 to 12 times per 24 hours so your baby receives this valuable milk. Colostrum and mature milk are designed to meet a newborn’s special needs. Colostrum has a yellow color, is thick in consistency, and is high in protein and low in fat and sugar. The protein content is three times higher than mature milk, because it is rich in the antibodies being passed from the mother. These antibodies protect your baby and act as a natural laxative, helping your baby pass the first stool called meconium.

Mature milk
Your milk will change and increase in quantity about 48 to 72 hours after giving birth. It may take longer depending on when you start breastfeeding and how often you breastfeed. The change in milk occurs a little earlier if you have breastfed before.

* Foremilk
When first starting to breastfeed, the first milk the baby receives is called foremilk. It is thin and watery with a light blue tinge. Foremilk is largely water needed to satisfy your baby’s thirst.
* Hind-milk
Hind-milk is released after several minutes of nursing. It is similar in texture to cream and has the highest concentration of fat. The hind-milk has a relaxing effect on your baby. Hind-milk helps your baby feel satisfied and gain weight. Feed your baby until you see a sleepy, satisfied look on your baby’s face.

[MattBaggins]

37. TMI

[SoCalDem]

38. It's just FOOD..

there's nothing mystical or magical about it.. :)

[redqueen]

42. But it comes from BREASTS!

:scared:

:P

[Jamastiene]

77. No, it is not.

It takes a village. Breast feeding is natural.

[tigereye]

48. that's nice! I had forgotten all that since it's so long ago..

[Jamastiene]

76. zOMG, I had no idea

milk was so complicated. I thought milk was milk and that's it. I'm fascinated now. Must go do some reading. Thanks for the link. :)

[FedUpWithIt All]

55. I would be more pissed off if i were the OTHER mother.

Her child was fed milk by a woman and had no assurances that the woman was healthy. Not to mention the bonding aspect for an infant during that time period.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. The horror! She may have contracted baby cooties!

Had this happened to me I'd be pretty ticked off because this mix-up would make me wonder about other mistakes happening in the unit, but I'd be happy to settle it with an apology from the poohbahs.

[Lance_Boyle]

10. I hope the judge fines her $40K for the frivolous suit.

Not every fuck-up is your payday, asshole!

[madmax]

16. Come sit by me

You're my kind of people ;)

[Brickbat]

11. Quite a fuckup on the nurses' end, but

I have to say I knew my babies after a day. How they smelled, how they moved, how they looked. I know all new moms are different. An "awful, internal feeling" isn't worth going to court for $30k over and can usually be mitigated by a good fart.

[Maru Kitteh]

13. What a nasty woman.

[WindRiverMan]

41. That is what I was thinking....

I am feeling sorry for the baby, and not because it was deprived of a few ounces of colostrum.

[berni_mccoy]

17. It was a mistake with no ill consequences. The Medical system doesn't need lawsuits like this.

[Lance_Boyle]

23. It's almost as if this case is an argument for

tort reform.

<GASP!> Did he really say that???

When every moron in the country views the court system as a lottery, we're fucked. Reform is needed. Dunno why this is seen as a "republican" issue.

[Spike89]

69. Only if this case goes to court

Judges do have the power to dismiss these types of cases and even punish the bringers of frivolous suits--tort reform really doesn't apply (hopefully) until damages are awarded. The reason so many people think this is a Repug position is that they want to truly limit the liability of those that are guilty, and lower the amounts being paid to those that have suffered injury.

[no_hypocrisy]

18. $30,000 for five minutes of "bonding"?! I don't think so . . . .

[Bucky]

54. Why not? That's about what Elliot Spitzer paid.

[Statistical]

62. BURN

[Soylent Brice]

20. did she dine at the olive garden before delivering?

:popcorn:

[Jamastiene]

78. No, but I bet she owns some pit bulls or at least knows someone who does.

:popcorn:


:evilgrin:


:hide:

[MineralMan]

21. Oops. Oh, well, get over it.

No harm done. Time to move on to the next disappointment.

[Lil Missy]

22. Jesus Christ.

:eyes:

[teenagebambam]

24. Hope she never sees

the end of "the GRapes of Wrath"

[Jamastiene]

79. Zing!

Good one. :spray:

[proudohioan]

86. You beat me to it....

however, that scene was in the book, not the movie....

I have a mildly embarrasing story as to why I know the difference.

:)

[monmouth]

26. This thread has not lived up to its potential..Where's Stinky??..LOL...n/t

[Quantess]

27. Get the moms on Maury Povich.

I'd like to see a screaming & slapping fest between them. :evilgrin:

[Lance_Boyle]

28. Interesting details in other articles - hubby is also plantiff's attorney???

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2046505,CST-NWS-baby14.article <-- great comments from Chicagoans here.

http://www.sustainablemothering.com/tag/jennifer-spiegel/ <-- tidbit about baby-daddy being the sue-er for this wretched piece of filth

Scott Spiegel should lose his license to practice law for this shit.

[Lance_Boyle]

30. Contact info for hubby/lawyer's firm:

The Law Offices of Goodman and Witanen, 1030 W. Higgins, Suite #365, Park Ridge, IL 60068-5740

http://www.goodmanandwitanen.com/

They might be interested to hear people's opinions about what one of their attorneys is doing, possibly with their resources.

[DKRC]

29. As a Mom who breastfed

I could have fed any number of babies when my milk came in without this woman's "awful feeling". That's just me.

But I wonder what the other Mother is thinking about this stranger feeding her baby, because everything you eat/take gets transmitted to the baby via the milk. If anyone has a case to bring about the mix-up it's the baby's family. Their baby has ingested whatever the other woman had in her system at the time of the feeding.

[Bunny]

31. That's was my first thought, too.

If a strange woman had breast-fed my baby, I'd want to be assured that the woman wasn't carrying anything that could be passed through breast milk. I doubt if I'd sue anyone, but I think if anyone has a case here it's the mother of the baby, not this breast-feeding nitwit.

[redqueen]

34. Yes,

or if her baby was fed by some other mother, or not fed at all. That would definitely be a huge issue.

[FedUpWithIt All]

57. Agreed. I wonder if she was even informed. n/t

[SoCalDem]

84. Since she was at the same hospital, it was likely the same thing

prior to delivery, they STARVE YOU :) and afterward, you are too tired to consume much more than jello :)

[DKRC]

85. Jello?

O hell no. After not being allowed anything to eat in the 12 hours leading up to having my labor induced, then 27 hours of labor for a 10 lb baby, no one came in my room with a cup of lime jello.
One of my BILs brought me a steak dinner with all the trimmings and I inhaled it.
:evilgrin:

[JerseygirlCT]

90. Exactly - the baby is the one with anything to worry about

no harm coming to the mom whatsoever.

[my2sense]

32. What a Crock

So what, you fed another human being for a few minutes. Consider it a good deed and move on. Absolutely ridiculous.

[TommyO]

33. What are the current fees for a wet nurse

That's all she should get.

[elehhhhna]

36. She will get 20K in go-away settlement money

and probably blow it on a boob job or something.

The going rate for go-Away money for Moms who were told the wrong sex of their babies during ultrasound 15 years ago (when it wasn't as advanced as it is now, and patients were informed that the sex predictions were maybe 80% accurate) was 15K.

[Bucky]

53. If they give her $21K then it's easier for her lawyer to calculate the contingency fee

I'm just kidding. Most lawyers take 40% now these days, so $20k will do just fine.

[FedUpWithIt All]

58. Really!?! My brother's kids were determined wrong in two of three pregnancies.

My nephew slept in lilac flowered bedding for the first year and a half of his life.

People sued for THAT?

[elehhhhna]

60. Sick, ain't it? Yes. Imo it's tempting fate, or karma, to say you

would have aborted a 22 week old fetus for being the "wrong sex", but it happened often enough.

People can be shockingly greedy.

[FedUpWithIt All]

64. I unwittingly came across the following site a few weeks back.

http://www.in-gender.com/cs/forums/6.aspx

It is a site for people suffering "gender disappointment"

IMHO it is quite disturbing that people will neglect, emotionally reject or worse to a child simply because it the child's gender does not fit into their pre determined "plan" or sense of order.

It all reminds me that societies often fall once they become as self serving and gluttonous as we have. We, societally, have a lot to account for regarding our treatment of the "least among" us.

[Vidar]

39. Award her a $5 wet nursing fee.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

40. I wonder if the other family will sue her for possible infectious disease transmission.

It certainly wasn't that kids fault and he might get an awful internal feeling when he goes on Spring Break in college and has a flashback to his first experience with a breast. :beer: :rofl:

[Jamastiene]

80. OMG, I hope "an awful internal feeling" isn't contagious.

Poor kid is gonna need therapy, I'm sure, now. :P

[montanto]

43. People have the craziest shit to worry about.

[tigereye]

44. not sure that rises to the level of negligence - don't babies and moms

have bar-coded wristbands to avoid that sort of thing, though?


Hmm, I don't think I would have sued if that had happened to me, seems like overkill. How is someone harmed by feeding another's baby? It's kind of weird, but...

[uppityperson]

59. If they had coded bands, they weren't checked properly.

There is more to this story than one article can say.

Even 1 day after giving birth, I sure as hell could ID my baby. Why were the ID's not checked before giving baby to mom? I wonder what the real mom of that baby had to say about all this.

[Edweird]

45. Oh good grief.

[marshall]

46. "awful feeling" makes it sound as if she is likening this to being sexually assaulted

She feels violated in some way.

[noamnety]

50. When my mom had my sister

there was a woman in the hospital at the same time with twin preemies. The doctors told that mom she should breastfeed those babies because they would need the immunities and whatever other things are unique to breast milk. But that mother wouldn't breastfeed - it wasn't her thing. So the doctors asked my mom, and she nursed my sister and the other woman's twins. They were strangers, but it was just the decent thing to do.

[Bucky]

51. You skeptics need to read the rest of the story. The reason she's upset is that it...

it wasn't just "not her baby" but that it wasn't a baby at all... just a very short doctor.

[redqueen]

56. LOL

good one :)

[Mz Pip]

72. wearing a diaper?

Hmmm. Anyone seen David vitter hanging around the hospital?

[Mimosa]

63. This is wrong.

There ought to be some kind of tort reform to prevent this kind of frivolous lawsuit. Such as this drives up healthcare costs for everyone. This was hardly a terrible mistake. The infant who fed at the wrong breast probably had an ID band on him. grrr.........

[Dappleganger]

65. As a mom who nursed four babies...

this woman reeks of SCAM.

[Hekate]

66. The reason I'd give for not being handed an/o woman's babe in the hosp has nothing to do with milk!

I would be really, really unhappy at the potential for a careless and potentially permanent baby-swap.

Like hospital kidnaps, those are rare, but they happen, and there you'd be... brr.

As for sharing my milk, I'd just want it to be of my own volition. I'd have been more than happy to share with my sister or a close friend, but I never had the opportunity to be asked.

My grandma nursed her sister's last baby, after her sis had a couple of infants die. That little one lived, but only until the age of 10 years. :-(

Hekate

[MadHound]

67. Some people will try anything to win a game of lawsuit lotto

This is ridiculous on the face of it, and if I were the judge I would toss it.

[undeterred]

68. Babies, they all look alike.

:hide:

[Jamastiene]

81. Ah, you!!!!

:spank:

:rofl:

[Randall Flagg]

70. Not reported:

the baby being fed was of a different race than the parents.

The father, after walking in on the feeding, threw himself out of a nearby window screaming "YOU CHEATER!" all the way down the three feet from the 1st story window where he experienced abrasions of his left knee.

:)

[Jamastiene]

75. Hell, I'd feed the wrong kid for 30 grand.

Sign me up!

Uhm, if no one was hurt, and it was an accidental mix-up to begin with, why sue?

[JI7]

82. she seems like a disgusting person

"It was just an awful, internal feeling."

why ????? the only way i can see this is if you have issues of breastfeeding in any case including your own child. but why is it so bad that it wasn't her baby ????

[BlueIris]

83. So I guess that makes the legitimate claims of malpractice, negligence and misconduct total crap. nt

[Vickers]

87. She couldn't recognize her own BABY after a whole DAY?

:wow:

[JerseygirlCT]

89. Oh brother

more than a little overblown, I think.

Baby's ok? Then there's no problem. Get over yourself toots - women have been feeding other women's babies forever.

[Tailormyst]

91. Frivolous lawsuit like this taint every justified one