Chinese Nurse Fired After Posting Strange, Contorted Baby Photos on Blog

A Chinese nurse has been fired after she was caught practicing an odd pastime: contorting babies under her care.

Xiao Shiyu, a student at the Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, held sleeping babies improperly, put them with props (such as a pig nose), took photos of them and posted them on her blog.

According to Shanghai Daily, the student intern's posts on the mircroblogging site Sina Weibo notably upset parents and others. Xiao has since apologized for her actions, but she was still fired from her position at the children's hospital in Hangzhou. Shanghai Daily reports the incident occurring in April but the story has continued to go viral.

Xiao is reported using these words to accompany some of her photos:

"I almost died laughing?" and "the babies are too small to resist my mischief."

China Daily reports Xiao also writing:

"What's wrong, baby? Wake up. Are you still alive?" [..] "This makes me laugh my head off. You even know how to mimic the dead."

Although some of the photos are harmless and just in bad taste, others concerned medical professionals as the babies heads weren't properly supported. China Daily notes several medical professionals on Xiao's Weibo site, as well as from the hospital, emphasizing the importance of supporting a baby's weak neck.

China Daily has more from colleagues of Xiao on her actions:

"We hope the public treats the incident as an individual case and doesn't magnify it," said Pengat the university.

"We have a complete education system of professional ethics beginning from the orientation for freshmen."

Shen Beijuan, an associate professor at the nursing college who knows Xiao well, said the student is compassionate but with a simple outlook.

"She told me she just did it for fun and didn't imagine the pictures would trigger the unexpected calamity. I believe she meant no harm," she said. "What she did really went against our instruction."

On June 2, Xiao apologized saying she meant no harm, asked for forgiveness and noted the lesson she learned in "consciously [showing] professional integrity." At the time of her apology, Xiao deleted the photos from her account. The next day she was fired.

[H/T MSN]