Nurses caught taping babies' mouths shut in Saudi

Nurses at a public pediatrics hospital in Saudi Arabia were again caught sticking an adhesive tape on babies’ mouths to stop them from crying.

Pic credit: Sabq

The hospital in the western town of Taif hit headlines last year when some newborns and other ill babies were seen with adhesive tapes stuck on their mouths. Some of them had their dummies stuck inside their mouths.

“They have done it again. It is clear they are doing it again because no measures were taken against them by the authorities in the previous case,” Sabq daily said.

The paper quoted a Saudi man as saying he was visiting his ill six-month-old boy at the hospital when he was shocked to see his mouth was stuck by an adhesive tape.

“I noticed that my son’s mouth was stuck while his dummy was still inside his mouth. I panicked and quickly removed the tape,” Ayed Al Otaibi said.

“I was very angry and rushed to the nurse who was inside the ward. I asked her why they are doing this to my son and she simply replied that he is crying all the time and that he is disturbing other babies and the staff.”

Otaibi said he saw other babies with stuck mouths and called on health authorities to take urgent action to stop such "crimes".

“Such behavior could kill the babies as it could cause them to suffocate. I noticed that the adhesive tape is very long as it stretched across the mouth to the tip of the ears.”

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