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November 23, 2000
4:46 PM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

Something just a bit different in a kidnapping: the victim suffers from polydactyly. If someone you know has suddenly come up with a newborn baby with one extra finger on each hand, let the FBI know. (No joke.)
posted by Steven Den Beste (7 comments total)

Westley: You have six fingers on your right hand. Someone was looking for you...

[Count Rugen quickly knocks Westley out with the hilt of his sword.]


(FWIW, the child was found unharmed. The abductor had been faking a pregnancy for some time; there had been a baby shower in her honor and everything.)

posted by luke at 5:53 PM on November 23, 2000


Read about it here.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:45 PM on November 23, 2000


I just feel the need to state that this:
"But a day-old child needs to be in a hospital," said police Cmdr. Dennis Richardson.

...is total crap. Only sick people actually need to be in a hospital. Plenty of healthy babies are born at home, and never set foot in a hospital.

And what the heck happened with the hospital's security procedures? They're typically extremely anal about this kind of thing, because it poses such massive liability for them. At the hospital where I had my daughter, they put little electronic soft bracelets around their legs that would set off an alarm if it went through the doorway (and the bracelets, er, leglets, were worn under the babies' clothes and blankets). Also, it was absolutely VERBOTEN to carry the child in your arms through the hallways - they *had* to be in the little plastic bassinet thing.

You can bet some serious head-rolling is going on at the hospital...
posted by beth at 10:14 AM on November 24, 2000



They surgically correct polydactyly in infants. That kid was probably scheduled for an operation. I get the impression from what I've been reading that the earlier they can perform the operation, the better the results. Perhaps not all day-old children need to be in a hospital, but a day-old child needs to be with its mother (who was in the hospital) and this particular day-old child may have needed to be in the hospital (in preparation for cosmetic surgery).
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:19 AM on November 24, 2000


...is total crap. Only sick people actually need to be in a hospital. Plenty of healthy babies are born at home, and never set foot in a hospital.

My sentiments exactly. We were home with our second child four hours after he was born. My wife's sister had all of her children at home with a midwife, and while the idea scares me personally (I want a doctor on the premises in case of complications), there's no reason all newborns should spend their first day at a hospital running up monstrous medical bills.
posted by rcade at 1:25 PM on November 24, 2000


Uh, most hospitals have little to no security. As I joke with my dad, I could walk in the hospital where he works, smother twenty patients with pillows, walk right out once again and no one would be the wiser.Sad but true.
posted by Mr. skullhead at 8:10 PM on November 24, 2000


What? They're going to surgically "correct" the kid and deprive the world of the pianist in Gattaca?
posted by kindall at 1:08 PM on November 27, 2000


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