Staff at a Navy hospital in Florida were removed from their positions after they posted on Facebook inappropriate photos and videos of them handling newborns, including making one baby dance to a hip-hop song and a photo of one staff member giving a newborn the middle finger and writing “mini Satans” in the caption.
Local news station WTLV reported Monday that the station was inundated with emails and messages about the Facebook post, and provided a video from a Snapchat account that showed one employee giving the middle finger to a newborn and captioning the photo “How I currently feel about these mini Satans.”
Another video shows one staff member holding a newborn baby upright, moving the baby’s arms in time to a rap song.
The commanding officer at the Naval Hospital Jacksonville responded to community outrage to the social media posts with a response on Facebook, saying that the two staffers had been removed from interacting with patients and referred to legal and military justice.
“We are aware of a video / photos posted online. It’s outrageous, unacceptable, incredibly unprofessional, and cannot be tolerated. We have identified those involved— two junior enlisted corpsmen (not nurses). They have been removed from providing patient care and they will be handled by the legal system and military justice. We’ve notified the patient’s parents,” the Facebook post said.
The response by the hospital garnered almost 5,000 shares and almost 3,500 comments.
• Laura Kelly can be reached at lkelly@washingtontimes.com.
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