Search icon

News

03rd Apr 2020

Dad hides coronavirus symptoms from hospital staff in order to see newborn

Melissa Carton

This is shocking.

A father in New York caused chaos in the hospital his wife was attending for her pregnancy, when he hid coronavirus symptoms to attend the birth of his child.

Staff at University of Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital were horrified when they found out after the fact as now everyone he made contact with could potentially have the virus.

Woman who was told she'd never have kids give birth to 15-pound baby

Many hospitals, including those in Ireland, have begun asking women not to have birth partners. While this was understandably met with some backlash, situations like this unfortunately prove what staff were afraid would happen.

It can be dangerous for newborns to be exposed to the regular flu, so potentially exposing an entire maternity ward to COVID-19 is just downright reckless.

Staff only found out that the father had symptoms after the mother he was visiting also started to display symptoms.

As of yet none of the staff members who made contact with the man have tested positive and the family in question have been put into quarantine.

The hospital has now implemented mandatory temperature checks for all visitors at the door.

The University of Rochester’s Strong Memorial Hospital made an official statement, detailing what happened and how they hope to prevent it from happening again.

One piece of the statement read;

“The families and patients of the upstate NY region should be assured that the safety of our patients and their families, as well as our staff, are our top priority during this crisis. Our healthcare team understands how important it is to pregnant patients to have a support person with them during labor, and therefore, additional safeguards have been added allow this to continue safely. We will continue to weigh all the medical evidence available to continue to make the best possible decision for all our patients, visitors, and staff.”