More accuse doctor of baby trafficking(2)

On the night of July 16, Lai's wife, Dong Shanshan, gave birth to a baby boy at the hospital. Zhang told them the child suffered from syphilis and hepatitis B transmitted from the mother and would not survive.

Zhang did not let the couple see their baby but said he had already been taken away.

Lai questioned the doctor's diagnosis and took his wife to another county hospital for syphilis and hepatitis B tests the following day. Two days later, the test results showed his wife was free of both diseases.

On July 20, Lai contacted police who investigated and found the baby in Henan province 20 days after he was born.

Zhang was detained by police and confessed she had sold the baby for 21,600 yuan ($3,500) to two people from Shanxi province in the early morning of July 17.

Police obtained surveillance video that showed Zhang took a baby out of the hospital.

Six suspects in the case have been detained.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission on Tuesday urged the Shaanxi Health Department to dismiss those responsible and improve the management of its medical system.

Mao Qun'an, spokesman for the state health authority, said leaders of the National Health and Family Planning Commission were closely following the case.

The Shaanxi health authority issued an emergency notice of safety inspections of the province's health system to improve its management.

Sun Zhenlin, deputy director of the health department, said the three top leaders of the Fuping hospital had been dismissed and Zhang's license had been revoked.

Guan Fangtian, who has worked as a midwife for 30 years in a hospital in Xi'an, capital of the province, said there were rules on how doctors and nurses dealt with newborn babies, even if the baby had medical issues or died.

"My hospital has strict regulations for the processing of dead babies, and babies with defects would also be sent to their parents without any private processing by the doctors and nurses," Guan said.

Yang said police had no information so far indicating that other doctors or nurses helped Zhang and there was no evidence her family members knew either.

"We are paying full attention to the reports of people who said their babies were also taken by Zhang, and we are continuing our investigation," Yang said.