UnNews:Georgia hospital use Facebook to notify mom of son's birth
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| Georgia hospital use Facebook to notify mom of son's birth | 
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21 February 2013
ATLANTA, Georgia -- A Georgia mom is outraged at a local hospital for sending her notification of her son's birth in a Facebook post. Anna Lamb began searching for her son, Ricky Lamb, who went missing on January 25th. She made the usual calls to nurses and doctors and eventually discovered that the hospital had already notified her.
Atlanta’s Social News Daily had more on the strange posting which was sent by a Misty Handcock. Anna Lamb didn’t know who Misty Handcock was, or why she was sending her messages to contact Clayton County Hospital. She paid it no mind because of the strange name and because the profile picture was Rambo in drag. Anna thought the posting was a fake. But it turns out the posting was from a real maternity ward nurse who just happens to look like a voluptuous female Sylvester Stallone.
Social News Daily notes, “Facebook notifications of birth tend to happen among kin and friends, and the battle over whether Facebook is an appropriate means of official communication -- such as informing a bank teller that, 'this is a holdup, give me all the money or I’ll delete you!' - or attempting to collect a refund because, ‘dumb bitch got AIDS‘ -- has been a constant source of hilarity.”
Using Facebook for such a notification is one sticking point. The other Facebook snafu? The posting was tucked away in a box most people never use named “Bunk.” Still, the Daily finds it hard to place blame on hospital staff, at least in part. “When you send a message to someone you don't know on Facebook, it gets sequestered to the hidden ‘Bunk’ folder, which only appears discreetly as a link in the middle the site's main messages tab. The hospital, like so many other Facebook users, probably has no idea that happens.”
But the Social News Daily does point out that authorities are increasingly turning to Facebook when other means of contact are more work, such as in this case. Ricky Lamb was born late night on January 24th while his mother lay in a drunken stupor. But because he had no dental records, tattoos, or other form of ID, the hospital didn’t know how to contact his next of kin, and his mother was out cold. The next day the mother awoke and wandered out of the hospital without noticing that her womb was no longer bulging. Finding her missing, the maternity ward was desperate to inform her about the birth of her child, and the easiest way to inform her was on Facebook.
Sources[edit]
- Jim Fink "Georgia Police Use Facebook to Notify Mom of Son's Death". WSB, February 8, 2013