Maternity Ward Clash: Robert F. Kennedy’s Son Douglas Deserves Charges Against Him
Look, I know first-hand what it’s like to have a maternity ward nurse call security on you. It sucks, it really does. But I also know that strict rules are often put in place for good reason, especially when it comes to high-profile births. Which is why Robert F. Kennedy‘s son Douglas Kennedy should have chilled out when two nurses prevented him from leaving the hospital with his newborn son last month. Instead, he turned to violence allegedly twisting one nurse’s arm and kicking another. Kennedy, a news reporter at Fox News, is now facing harassment and child endangerment charges over the incident.
According to reports, Kennedy, 44, was trying to take his baby, Bo, outside for some fresh air when he was approached by two nurses at New York’s Northern Westchester Hospital. His lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, said the nurses tried to stop Kennedy from taking his newborn out of the maternity ward even though he had already received permission from other nurses. He goes to explain how Kennedy lifted his knee “to protect his son” as a nurse came toward him, which hit the nurse and caused her to fall backwards. A second nurse accused Kennedy of twisting her harm, but Kennedy is denying those claims.
“It is sickening to think that our simple desire to take our son outside for fresh air has been warped into a charge of child endangerment,” Kennedy and his wife, Molly, said in a statement.
Dr. Timothy Haydock agrees. He works at the hospital as an emergency room physician, and he’s also a close family friend. “I witnessed the incident and I can state unequivocally that the nurses were the only aggressors,” he said.
But according to Elliot Taub, the attorney for both nurses, his clients did not recognize Kennedy as the newborn’s father and they were only trying to protect the baby, who had not been discharged. They were just trying to enforce hospital rules, he said. But Kennedy’s lawyer said his client only became aggressive when the two nurses tried to take the baby.
Again, I understand how frustrating that must have been for Douglas Kennedy. But I still think he handled it poorly. It’s not like these nurses wanted to take the baby somewhere unsafe or do something questionable (then, I would totally understand any parent going crazy); they were simply demanding that he stay indoors, plain and simple. It sounds to me like they were erring on the side of caution, and I don’t blame them one bit. With so many terrible kidnapping stories out there including this recent one about a woman who faked her own pregnancy and then snatched a newborn from the hospital we should be thankful for staff who take their jobs seriously.
That’s not to say that Kennedy shouldn’t be peeved if these nurses were simply power tripping. But, even if that were the case, a rational person would have complied and then complained to the powers that be, rather than pull their own little power trip. The incident seems to be more about ego than anything else and I, for one, am happy to know that no one’s messing around when it comes to hospital security.
(Photo: nypost.com)
