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Hospital Head Of PR Stepping Down Weeks After Newborn Kidnapping

Posted: 5:35 pm EDT May 5, 2008

Inside sources are telling Channel 9 a Seminole County hospital is still struggling to recover from the March kidnapping of a newborn baby. The hospital has said little about the incident or the steps they've taken to prevent it from happening again.

Sources inside the hospital told Eyewitness News many are uneasy. The head PR man said the decision to split with Central Florida Regional Hospital was mutual, but others at the hospital said administrators thought he didn't do enough to protect the hospital in the days after a newborn baby had been abducted.

Craig Bair is supposed to be the face of Central Florida Regional Hospital when it comes to informing the public, but now he's on the way out. The main marketing and public relations man said he reached a mutual agreement with the hospital to leave later this month, but sources told Channel 9 his departure is linked to what happened after, authorities said, Jennifer Latham kidnapped a newborn baby from the hospital in March.

So far, no one from the hospital, not even Bair, has talked about the baby abduction on camera. Communication has been limited to a few written statements, but sources told Eyewitness News administrators were unhappy with Bair and said he failed to protect the hospital.

The PR change is just the latest fallout from the abduction. Channel 9 first reported a baby kidnapping drill didn't go as planned last week when someone acting like they kidnapped a baby made it outside the hospital before being stopped. The confusion in the 911 call right after the kidnapping also led to intense scrutiny from the state.

Now, sources tell Eyewitness News the hospital may have received early warning about an upcoming visit from state investigators even though it's supposed to be unannounced.

Eyewitness News checked with the state agency that will re-inspect the hospital and it said it has no information that the time of its follow-up visit might have been leaked.

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