How nurse ‘pierced newborn baby’s eye to avenge carryover’

A nurse, Folade Adeshina, who allegedly pierced the eyes of a newborn baby to avenge a carryover at school, has been suspended indefinitely by the Usman Danfordiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto.

The suspension pends the outcome of her trial after she was arraigned and remanded.

“If she is found guilty and convicted, we may sack her. But she is currently under indefinite suspension,” Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Anas Sabir, said.

” We have started investigating the matter before we put a stop to it due to her arrest by the police. Because we cannot continue investigating the case without having an interaction with her to know her level of commitment,” he said

It was  reported that the nurse had allegedly used injection needle to prick the eye of the baby few minutes after it was born in order to avenge a carryover given to her by the Sokoto study centre of the National Open University, where the mother worked as a non-academic staff.

Narrating her story to Daily Trust, the mother, Asma’u Ahmad Tijjani recalled that one week to her Expected Date of Delivery (EDD), the nurse met her in her office that she wanted to have a private discussion with her.

“Immediately we came out from my office, she started asking some questions, like when am I coming to the hospital, when is my EDD and what is my full name. This really surprised me because that was the first time I was having one-on-one discussion with her, so I refused to reveal all this information to her.

“She then told me that, she was in possession of my medical record and knew everything about me, that she only wanted to be on help,” she said.

“When my pregnancy was due for delivery and I was taken to the labour room, precisely on 15th of this month, the same woman came and stood by my bed, speaking Yoruba language to the nursing staff that was attending to me and this made me very uncomfortable because I did not know her mission, so I complained to my nurse who pleaded with her to leave the place.

” Immediately after my delivery, my nurse started preaching to me that i should always try to be kind to the people i deal with, especially in my working place, that nurse that I complained about told her that I gave her carryover.

“I was shocked to hear this because I am not a teaching staff of the university and have no business with students’ scripts. So how could I give her carryover? So when my husband came, the same woman came and collected my baby that she was taken it to him. I then asked one of the Doctors present at the time to follow her up but she declined.

“After some minutes, she brought the baby back and when I collected her I noticed some blood coming out from her eyes. So I started crying and shouting and before you know it the labour room was filled with the hospital staff.

” And when they realised what happened, they all rushed out to look for that nursing staff but she was not where to be found and her phone was switched off. The baby was then taken to the eye section of the hospital for examination who confirmed that both her eyes were pricked but the object did not penetrate the two lenses,” she said

“The nurse however, came the following morning with a basket of cooked food which I rejected on ground of what she did to my baby. My relatives who were with me at the time started beating her before she was rescued by her colleagues,” she said.

The mother further appealed to the hospital authority, the police and the state government to ensure justice was done to her baby.

Courtesy (excluding headline) Daily Trust