Woman poses as 'nurse' to kidnap baby from hospital in Saudi Arabia

In an incident that stirred panic among Saudi locals last week, a woman posing as a nurse kidnapped a newborn from a private hospital in Jeddah.

Authorities managed to find the victim within 48 hours and went on to arrest the suspect, Gulf News reported on Monday.

According to Abdul Rahman Farie, the uncle of the newborn baby named Noor, the latter was born on the morning of May 16 and was kidnapped from the hospital in Al-Hamra district that same night. The suspect took Noor from her mother while dressed as a nurse, claiming the newborn was set to be examined by a doctor.

Noor was soon discovered to be missing, prompting hospital officials and security authorities to launch an investigation into the incident. Surveillance footage captured the suspect entering the hospital in normal clothes and leaving it in a nurse's uniform, after which she put the newborn in a car waiting at the main gate.

The news quickly spread out in the Saudi community, with many social media users discussing the incident and hoping for Noor's safe return. Farie believes the social media buzz pressured the perpetrator(s) to backtrack on the crime and return the baby.

Noor was thus found in good health two days after she was kidnapped in another hospital located in Al-Nahda neighborhood.

"It was a painful incident. We experienced a hard time alleviated by society's support for us," Gulf News quotes Noor's father, Hussain Ahmad, as saying. 

He added, "I couldn't understand what happened to my daughter [...] How could a woman wearing a healthcare worker's uniform enter [the hospital] and kidnap a baby?"

Authorities have since arrested the suspect, a Saudi woman in her fifties, and started legal proceedings against her.

The motive behind the crime remains unclear. According to the Saudi Gazette, Farie said the family does not have bad blood with anyone, ruling out the possibility of the perpetrator(s) taking vengeance on the family and suggesting they might have meant to target the hospital. 

The kingdom's Ministry of Health confirmed the facts of the case and vowed to take the necessary measures against all those responsible. 

"A team will thoroughly analyze the case and its root causes, and we will penalize individuals who are found guilty of neglect or negligence," the ministry said in a statement to Sabq.

The kingdom's hospitals have witnessed a number of similar incidents. In August 2017, a woman disguised as a nurse kidnapped a baby boy from King Khalid hospital in Saudi Arabia's Kharj governorate. Initial investigations had revealed the 30-year-old perpetrator suffers from infertility and kidnapped the boy in hopes of adopting him.

Authorities found the boy inside a mosque and handed him over to his mother just one day after the kidnapping.