After an abortive six-day hunt for the runaway drug-dependent mother who snatched her baby from Faro’s Neonatal intensive care unit two hours after he was born, the 28-year-old woman returned to the hospital with her newborn in tow.
The child, apparently in good health and condition, is now being cared for by paediatricians whose fear throughout the days he was missing was that he could be suffering from abstinence syndrome – a pathology common in the newborn babies of drug addicts.
But as concern for the baby’s welfare calms and tests are carried out to ensure his continued health, the truth is that mother Alexandra Patrício may have irreparably lost her right to look after him.
Children’s champion Luís Villas-Boas, the director of Faro children’s home Refúgio Aboim Ascensão, has been quoted by national tabloid Correio da Manhã as saying “this mother should never have a child with her. Neither this one nor any other that she might give birth to. She is an irresponsible and criminal mother. That is the correct word for someone who disappears with a baby that is only two hours old.”
Friends and relatives interviewed by CM have also denounced Patrício’s actions – variously alleging she is “not well” and violent when she takes drugs.
When the story first broke last weekend, it was alleged that Patrício had taken drugs hours before giving birth.
She was apparently intent on fleeing with her baby because she “did not want another child by taken from her and put into care”.
Her first child, a six-year-old son called Óscar, was removed from her care by Faro children’s and minors court after Albufeira social services suspected mistreatment. He is now one of the 84 children being cared for by Villas-Boas’ Refúgio.
He does not show any kind of addiction to drugs, Villas-Boas told CM, and during the visits Patrício has made to see him, staff reported the boy had a “good relationship” with his mother, despite the fact that she herself was “very difficult, harsh and aggressive”.
The likelihood that Patrício’s newborn will leave Faro hospital to be put in the care of the Refúgio is now extremely high.
In the meantime, a hospital inquiry has been opened to determine how it was possible for the woman to remove her baby from the neonatal intensive care unit and smuggle him out of the hospital premises in a rucksack.
Hospital director Pedro Nunes has explained that “hospitals are not prisons”, but he has acknowledged that if Faro decides to change its policy as a result of this scare, babies could soon see themselves fitted with electronic tags, as has been a legal requirement (not adopted in Faro) since 2009.
Throughout the furore in which police reinforced border controls, checking all women with newborns, Patrício’s hometown of Salvada, near Beja, is described as having been “under a cloak of silence”. No-one seems to be prepared to talk about the complicated young woman who left to live in the Algarve, and has ended splashed over national media for running away with her own child.
According to Faro paediatrician Maria Alfaro, Patrício returned to the hospital late last (Thursday) night, because she was worried that all the publicity would put her job looking after children and old people “at risk”.
For the time being, there is no talk of Patrício facing any criminal charges.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
