It was the first time that 22-year-old Marie Giameos had taken her young daughter to the emergency department, the last thing she expected was to be accused of harming her.
“I walked out the door with my baby in my arms and got in the car and just lost it,” the Sydney mother told Kidspot.
“I can’t believe anyone would think I’d do that to my child.”
The mother of four from St Mary’s in Western Sydney, claims that a doctor at the Mount Druitt hospital emergency department accused her of deliberately wrapping a stand of hair around her two-month-old daughter’s finger.
The infant, Alena, was actually suffering from Hair Tourniquet Syndrome where a strand of hair wraps so tightly round a baby’s body part that it can cut of circulation.
The incident took place in November last year. “I had read about Hair Tourniquet Syndrome on a Kidspot post and immediately realised what was wrong with her,” Marie says.
“But the swelling had covered the hair so I couldn’t get to it.”
Marie rushed Alena to hospital, where a triage nurse assured her that what had happened to her baby girl was actually quite common.
“I sat in a chair and had Alena held close to my chest while the doctor stood next to me holding her hand and unravelling the hair by hand,” she explains.
“He was digging at her skin with his fingers while she was screaming and squirming. It was quite traumatising!”
But the stressful ordeal was about to get a lot worse. As the doctor removed the hair from Alena’s finger he said that it couldn’t have happened by accident.
“Halfway through, he asked how I had not noticed it before now and that this could not have been done accidentally,” she says.
“He told me he was concerned for my baby’s safety and that it was done on purpose. He told the female nurse to make a phone call.”
The doctor then continued to remove the hair from the baby’s finger which took about 15 minutes.
“Once it was removed he went into another room and left me and Alena waiting,” Marie says.
“I said to my dad, who was with us, that I thought they were calling DOCS.”
“All I could think of was my other three kids and that DOCS could investigate and even taken my children from me.”
After a tense ten minute wait the doctor and nurse returned and said that Marie was free to leave because they had discovered the syndrome is “apparentlty” common.
“There was no apology – they were shocked that I was allowed to leave – they couldn’t believe it because they have never heard of it,” Marie says.
Marie fell apart when she finally got her baby girl back to the car.
“I will never forget the looks and judgement I received – I felt really terrible,” she says.
Marie’s advise for parents is to be extra vigilant.
“It can happen to anyone and it’s no one’s fault,” she told Kidspot.
“I know it’s hard to notice but you need to always check carefully and regularly because it swells quickly.”
