Baby Abducted From Intensive Care Unit Is Returned to Hospital

A 14-month-old baby abducted from the pediatrics intensive care unit of Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys was returned to the hospital in good condition by his mother Sunday night, Los Angeles police said.

The child, William H. Moriarty Jr., was taken by his mother, Diana Allen, 30, when she visited him at 8:10 p.m. Saturday, said Detective Robert Womack. The child had been in protective custody.

Allen returned the child about 24 hours later after police and hospital officials announced that the boy’s life could be in danger because he was under medication that should not be discontinued.

“Fortunately, we got him back,” said Sgt. Fred Haptonstal. “His mother took him right back to the hospital.”

Haptonstal said police believe Allen saw media reports of the danger facing her child and decided to return him to the hospital.

Hospital officials declined to release the condition of the boy, but police said the child appeared to be in good condition. Allen was detained by hospital security officials and turned over to police. She was being held on suspicion of felony child-stealing late Sunday, said Sgt. Dave Dempsey.

“The baby’s doing fine,” he added.

For more than a month, the child had been treated at the hospital for severe head injuries allegedly inflicted by his father, William H. Moriarty Sr., Womack said. The father has been charged with child abuse and is free on bail, police said. The baby was placed in protective custody at the hospital by the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services on Sept. 30, police said.

Hospital spokeswoman Ann Kirkpatrick said the child is on anti-seizure medication and his condition requires constant medical supervision.

“If the anti-seizure medication is withdrawn rapidly, the child is likely to go into seizure, which is life-threatening,” Dr. Bruce Barker, the child’s physician, said before the child was returned. The child is also on antibiotics for a severe chronic ear infection, Barker said.

Allen, who is not suspected of child abuse, was allowed to visit her son at the hospital as long as she was supervised by hospital personnel, police said. She had visited the child frequently over the past three weeks. “For some reason, this time, she decided to take the baby,” Dempsey said.

Allen had been living in a halfway house for drug addicts in North Hollywood, Haptonstal said. “It wasn’t unusual for her to be there, so the hospital staff was not really watching her that closely,” he said.

Witnesses told police that they saw Allen take the child from the hospital, authorities said. The hospital spokeswoman refused to comment on the circumstances of the abduction.

The mother left the hospital with the baby and carried him on a bicycle to the nearby Van Nuys home of her sister, police said. She borrowed the sister’s 1973 yellow Ford Pinto, about $25 and had not been seen until she brought the baby back to the hospital about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, police said.

Dempsey said the mother apparently did not know the infant needed special medication. “She never inquired of hospital personnel and she was never told,” he said.