Healthcare institutions throughout the United States use
a standardized
color code system to communicate emergencies within the organization. Here
are some examples of the color code system, which can differ from hospital to
hospital depending on what state you are in.
Code Blue – medical emergency
Code Red – fire
Code Orange – hazardous material spill or incident
Code Pink – infant or child abduction
Code Yellow – bomb threat
Code Gray – combative person
Code Triage – internal or external disaster
There was a Code
Pink incident this January in Arizona where a new father smuggled his baby
out of the hospital by placing the baby in a shopping bag and wrapping the baby
in blankets. He first tried to exit through a locked fire door, and then walked
out of the main entrance of the hospital, making it back to his home with the
baby. The baby was retrieved by the police and placed under protective custody
in the department of child safety. Interestingly, some of the most thorough
news coverage was from DailyMail
UK.
Based on this incident, many hospitals in the Phoenix
metro area staged their annual Code Pink drill this year with the scenario of a
family member trying to remove a baby from the hospital using a shopping or
tote bag, to test their staff response in the women’s and children’s units, as
well as security response.
Hospitals frequently use infant abduction protection
systems like Hugs®
or Cuddles
or MyChild®.
These infant tag systems are designed to integrate with a hospital’s existing
security technology and raise an alarm if the tag is altered or if the infant
moves outside of the approved pre-set perimeter.
HICSCenter.org
has developed an infant/child
abduction scenario, including a planning guide, response guide, and
incident command chart. The Hospital Incident Command System (HICS) differs
slightly from “normal” ICS in that it is written for hospitals and includes
components of continuing medical care in an emergency situation.
Some of my favorite movies and TV shows have had baby
stealing as a component of the story: Willow (1988), Labyrinth (1986), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 3,
Episode 6: Band Candy (1998). Not sure what that says about my movie tastes.
In Season 3, Episode
6 (Band Candy) of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1998), the adults of Sunnydale
start behaving like teenagers after ingesting magically modified chocolate
candy bars sold by the students to raise money for the marching band to get new
uniforms. Yes, I was in marching band. I played the clarinet. Yes, I also sold
candy and wrapping paper and a host of other things to support the band. The
adults have been more or less incapacitated by demons and vampires so that the
leading baddie (the Mayor of Sunnydale) can complete a tribute to a local demon
named Laconis. Laconis lives in the sewers and eats babies. Buffy and her team
go to the hospital to see if any babies are missing, and the staff and parents are
acting like unconcerned, self-absorbed teenagers, so much so that they didn’t
notice four babies being taken. The babies are rescued by Buffy after the demon
is defeated and returned to the hospital.
The tribute of babies for the demon Laconis in "Band Candy" from Buffy S3 E6. |
Lesson learned? Chocolate can be used for evil.
Labyrinth
(1986) involves the Goblin King, Jareth, stealing the little brother of the
main character, Sarah. Sarah is irritated that she’s been left home to babysit
and that her little brother won’t stop crying. She wishes him away to a fantasy
world ruled by Jareth and a cadre of muppet characters. Jareth sings
a song about it that’s pretty awesome. Sarah has 13 hours to solve the
labyrinth before Jareth turns her brother into a goblin. Sarah ends up saving
her brother at the last minute and returns to the real world.
The goblins from Labyrinth - image courtesy of muppet.wikia.com. |
Lesson learned? Puppets are awesome.
In Willow (1988), the main character Willow has become
responsible for a Daikini baby found by his children by the riverside. A member
of the diminutive Nelwyn people, Willow gives
the baby to a disgraced Daikini warrior, Madmartigan, after Madmartigan
convinces Willow that taking care of the baby would give him a reason to live
and turn his life around. Not long after they part ways, Willow is dismayed to
discover that Madmartigan’s child care skills were, in a word, awful. The baby,
named Elora Danan, is whisked away from
Madmartigan by a couple of brownies named Rool and Franjean. The brownies
are working to save Elora Danan from being captured by an evil queen who wants
to kill Elora to attain unmeasurable power. Willow and Madmartigan eventually
team up with the brownies and lose/regain
Elora Danan several times during the movie.
Lesson learned? Don’t leave an infant with unqualified
caregivers. And Madmartigan is the greatest swordsman that ever lived.
To commemorate our Code Pink drill this year, I drew the
following cartoon/manga of a possible Code Pink incident based on the events of
Willow.
Code Pink planning with Willow, Madmartigan, Rool, and Franjean. |
We're hard at work on our new Sock Puppet Safety videos and will share when they are completed. Thanks for your continued reading!
A close-up of the "We stole the baby!" moment since it is my favorite part of the manga:
Rool and Franjean steal Elora Danan from Madmartigan. |
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