Swedish Hospital Issues Octopus Ban

Swedish Hospital Issues Octopus Ban

Swedish Hospital Issues Octopus Ban

Swedish doctors have banned parents from bringing crotchet octopi onto hospital wards, following the growth of a trend from neighbouring Denmark.

Parents have been bringing in woollen versions of the cephalopod due to a belief - given credence by Danish doctors - that wearing them helps stabilise young infants' heart rates, as well as improving their oxygen blood levels.

However, Skåne University Hospital has issued a ban on them, with neo-natal head Berit Paul explaining, "a cloth toy can gather up bacteria and become an infection risk factor. If we let the children have these octopi, we'd have to clean them daily, and that's not a service we can provide."

We can't believe these things actually work - they've got to be squidding.

[via thelocal.se]

(Image: Sonya Green/Flickr)

Marc Chacksfield
Content Director

As Content Director of Shortlist, Marc likes nothing more than to compile endless lists of an evening by candlelight. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.