Saudi fires nurses for squashing a newborn baby’s face

A group of Saudi nurses who filmed themselves laughing while squashing the face of a newborn baby hospitalised with an infection have been fired.

The baby’s parents became aware of the shocking treatment by the nurses after footage emerged online and was shared on social media. 

The video shows one of the nurses grasping the baby by its neck and forehead and cruelly squashing the helpless infant’s face as her colleagues giggle

Three members of staff at a maternity hospital in Taif, Saudi Arabia, were soon identified and tracked down. 

Abdulhadi Al-Rabie, Taif Health Affairs spokesman, said: ‘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.’

The nurses, who have not been named, were immediately suspended after they were tracked down. 

Their medical licenses have now been revoked and they are banned from practising nursing in other health departments.

The baby’s father told Saudi media the baby was in the hospital for ten days for treatment for a urinary tract infection and was shocked when he saw the video being widely shared on social media.

Social media users were horrified at the footage. One wrote: ‘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.’