Outrage after 3 Saudi nurses post video of themselves laughing and squashing newborn baby's face
The accused nurses were identified and sacked, and their licences were also revoked.
A viral video has caused outrage in Saudi Arabia as it shows a group of nurses laughing as one of them mercilessly squashes a newborn baby's face. The infant was suffering from an infection and was undergoing treatment at the hospital where the nurses worked.
Three nurses were reportedly found to be involved in the incident and were sacked after the video came to the newborn's parents' notice.
In the video, which was recorded at a maternity hospital in Taif, Saudi Arabia, one of the nurses can be seen holding the baby by its neck and forehead and squashing it while her colleagues can be heard laughing, according to the Daily Mail.
The three staff members, who have not been named, were suspended on Wednesday (3 January) after medical authorities in the city tracked them down. An investigation followed that further led to their permanent departure.
"The Health Affairs investigated the source of the video and was able to identify the nurses who appeared in the video and the hospital where the incident took place," Abdulhadi Al-Rabie, Taif Health Affairs spokesman, was quoted by the publication as saying.
The medical licences of all the accused nurses have been revoked and they have also been banned from practising nursing in any other health departments.
The child's father, who was devastated by the incident, told the Saudi media that his baby had remained in the hospital for nearly 10 days for treatment of a urinary tract infection during when the ill-treatment took place.
Social media users were outraged and condemned the nurses for their act. One user said, "How dare they do this? All three nurses should thank God I was not the baby's mother. I'd squeeze all your faces much harder."
