Infant Abduction in South Africa Sheds Light on Need for Infant Security Systems

Last week in Cape Town, South Africa, the Magistrate's Court handed down an indictment for an infant abduction that took place in the Groote Schuur Hospital in 1997. The woman who is charged with kidnapping the two day old infant after convincing the young mother to take a nap while she watched her newborn daughter. The indictment states that she "entered the maternity ward of Groote Schuur Hospital, where Celeste Nurse was convalescing after the birth of her daughter. She befriended her and convinced her to hand her daughter to her so that she could sleep." Eighteen years later, the crime was solved when a younger daughter of the couple who experienced this tragedy entered the same high school as the abducted girl. Their striking resemblance led to truth of their origin.

Infant abduction from hospitals and birthing centers is a rare but serious threat. A report in the United States by the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that 68.1% of infant abductions occur in hospital, whether in the nursery or the mother’s room. This tragic story from South Africa points to the importance of infant protection systems in maternity wards to keep them safe and secure. There are many reasons why hospitals and birthing centers choose to install or upgrade their security systems using Accutech RFID-enabled products: lower total cost of ownership, advanced features, lower rate of false alarms, full compliance, and the most comprehensive customer support program in the industry. In addition to easy integration with existing systems, Accutech and our network of local dealers are committed to making sure that your staff receives the necessary training and support to ensure that there are no weak links in your infant protection system.

An RFID-enabled infant protection system like Cuddles from Accutech has different hardware components that combine to create an alert when an infant wearing a bracelet enters into a protected area or beyond an unauthorized exit. Our unique soft bracelet has an RFID tag attached to it. The tag transmits a signal at a specific radio frequency that can be identified by a controller (receiver) placed near a point of egress. If an alarm is tripped, alerts can be sounded at the point of egress as well as communicated through existing pagers, two-way radios and centralized command panels. Accutech can help to ensure that your staff spends more time caring for patients and less time managing systems.