No answer from Fraser Health on why police weren’t called sooner after Surrey NICU assaults

A woman accused of gaining access to the neo-natal ICU in Surrey and making skin-to-skin contact with three infants appeared in court Tuesday.

The bail hearing for the woman accused of entering the neonatal intensive care unit at Surrey Memorial Hospital and making skin-to-skin contact with three infants has been adjourned until Monday.

Lindsey Susan Hirtreiter remains in custody, as she has been since her arrest at an address in Surrey over the weekend.

The 35-year-old has been charged with three counts of assault. Police allege that she entered the NICU on Oct. 28, removed her shirt and made contact with the three babies, and was later removed from the premises by hospital security.

Though it happened more than a month ago, the incident was a major topic during question period in B.C.’s legislature on Monday, after a Surrey Police Service news release issued last week led to Hirtreiter’s arrest and charges.

Asked why it took so long for them to ask the public for help identifying the suspect in the case, the SPS said investigators completed “numerous non-public and conventional investigative tasks” in hopes of identifying the suspect without turning to the public.

“A public appeal is typically the last step investigators request to be taken unless there are significant exigent circumstances,” Staff Sgt. Lindsay Houghton said in an email to CTV News Tuesday.

Houghton confirmed that the suspect “allegedly left the hospital on foot prior to police being called,” and directed questions about why police weren’t called sooner to Fraser Health.

‘Highly unusual incident’

For its part, the health authority issued its own statement, which did not answer CTV News questions about when police were called and why the suspect was not held by hospital security until they arrived.

“We take this incident very seriously and want to assure our patients, staff, and medical staff that their safety and well-being remain our top priority,” the Fraser Health statement reads.

“We are grateful that all of the babies are safe and unharmed. Immediately following the incident, we reached out to the affected families to make them aware and answer any questions they had.”

The health authority apologized for any distress the “highly unusual incident” has caused the families whose infants were involved.

It also said it has enhanced its screening procedures at all maternity, pediatric and neonatal intensive care units since the incident.

“When groups visit these units, our teams are ensuring that each member of the group is consistently screened in order to prevent anyone from entering who is not part of the group,” the statement reads.

“Screening for people leaving the site with an infant or child is strict, and all units go through checklists which require them to confirm that a person is the parent.”

‘Very easy’ to blend in

Connie Jorsvik—founder of Patient Pathways, an organization that helps people navigate the health-care system—told CTV News the apparent delay between the hospital discovering a breach of its NICU and contacting police was the most concerning element of the incident, for her.

“I’ve been in the health-care industry now for a very long time, and what I’ve seen with security is that it’s very reactionary,” Jorsvik said. “Hospitals only put in as much security as the budget will allow, and (based on): Where have there been breaches in the past?”

While she said people should not be concerned, generally, about hospital security, there are some places in the province where safety issues are becoming a more of a problem.

The heavy workloads that nurses and doctors face can contribute to that problem, Jorsvik said, noting that health-care workers are often too busy to know the faces and names of patients or other workers who are present, but not in their direct care, on a given day.

Even in a unit like a NICU where access is restricted, it’s not difficult to imagine an intruder going undetected amid the bustle, she said.

“They’ve got yellow gowns that they put on over top of their clothes,” Jorsvik said. “It would be very easy for her to blend in for some time.”

Accused’s criminal history

The allegations against Hirtreiter have not been proven.

Police say none of the babies involved in the incident were injured.

Court records show Hirtreiter pleaded guilty to an animal cruelty charge in 2016 after she stabbed and tortured a dog that had wandered from its home.

She avoided jail time in that case after the judge accepted her defence’s argument that she was in a psychotic state at the time.

Hirtreiter was sentenced to two years of probation and given a lifetime ban on owning animals.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Ben Nesbit and Regan Hasegawa