Outrage as baby ‘gagged with tape’ at Philippine hospital

A Philippine hospital has launched an investigation after photographs of a newborn baby gagged with adhesive tape went viral online, with the father claiming a nurse told him: “Your baby was too noisy.”

Pictures of the baby boy, his eyes shut and his mouth covered with clear tape as he lay on a sheet, sparked a furore as they spread on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.

The Cebu Puericulture Centre and Maternity House in the central city of Cebu told reporters it was investigating a complaint by Ryan Noval and Jasmine Badocdoc that they had found their five-day-old son at its nursery with his mouth taped over.

Noval wrote that the couple complained to hospital authorities after they were told by a nurse: “Your baby was too noisy so I put that over his mouth.”

“Meet my son Yohannes Noval,” the father wrote on Facebook. “[He] cannot speak about his horrific experience... so we have to speak out for him.”

The May 9 post showed the now widely-shared photographs of baby Yohannes with a long strip of tape across his mouth and cheeks.