Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

André Fairclough and Cadisha Fogo breathed a sigh of relief yesterday after they were reunited with their two-day-old daughter some seven hours after she was stolen from the Victoria Jubilee Hospital (VJH) in Kingston.

The 20-year-old woman who took their baby has been charged with "child stealing", after she was found with the infant at her home in Duhaney Park, St. Andrew.

Constable Valentino Chambers, of the Hannah Town Police Station, said the woman lost a baby recently and it is theorised that she stole the child with the intention of keeping it as her own.

Internal assistance

Constable Chambers said it was still unclear how the woman was able to leave the hospital with the baby, as she gave several stories. He said, however, that he believed she got internal assistance.

"I feel overwhelmed and enthusiastic that I found back my baby. As a young man I feel that there is now a reason for living. I am on cloud nine right now," Mr. Fairclough told The Gleaner yesterday.

He explained that he was at the hospital about 7:00 a.m during visiting hours yesterday when 19-year-old Ms. Fogo, fainted.

The 20-year-old father noted that while the doctors were attending to Ms. Fogo, he was holding the baby, when a woman dressed in a pink and white uniform, similar to those worn by ward assistants, approached him and asked if the baby had received her BCG, a vaccine for tuberculosis.

The baby's father said when he told her no, she asked him to walk with her to an area in the hospital. "She then told me that I could not come any further when we reached the third floor and she told me to wait for her there," he said.

Became suspicious

Mr. Fairclough said the baby's maternal grandmother then came and asked for the baby and, when he told her what had happened, they became suspicious and began searching for the woman.

He told The Gleaner they found the woman on the first floor with a black plastic bag in her hand.

"The grandmother questioned her and she said the baby was at the nursery," the baby's father said.

Mr. Fairclough said he then went to the nursery and, on investigation, it was found that the baby was not there and BCGs were not done on that floor.

At that time, the woman had already exited the building.

When The Gleaner visited the hospital yesterday, several family members were seen demonstrating outside the entrance to the lobby.

When contacted yesterday, Dr. Douglas McDonald, senior medical officer at the VJH, declined to comment, referring The Gleaner to Donald Farquharson, the chief executive officer at the facility.