After Daily Trust story, UDUTH suspends nurse that ‘pierced newborn baby’s eye’ indefinitely

The nurse that allegedly pierced both eyes of a newborn baby to avenge a carryover, Folade Adeshina, has been suspended indefinitely by the Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto. Speaking to our reporter, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Anas Sabir, said the nurse who was arraigned and remanded at the central correctional […]

The nurse that allegedly pierced both eyes of a newborn baby to avenge a carryover, Folade Adeshina, has been suspended indefinitely by the Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto.

Speaking to our reporter, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Anas Sabir, said the nurse who was arraigned and remanded at the central correctional centre Sokoto, was suspended pending the outcome of her trial.

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“If she is found guilty and convicted, we may sack her. But she is currently on indefinite suspension.

“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.

Daily Trust Saturday had two weeks ago reported that the nurse had allegedly used an injection needle to pierce the eye of the baby a 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 of the baby worked as 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 and said 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 a 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 of help,” she said.

“When my pregnancy was due for delivery and I was taken to the labour room, precisely on the 15th of June, the same woman came and stood by my bed, speaking the 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 the nurse I complained about told her that I gave her a 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 a carryover?

“When my husband came, the same woman came and collected my baby that she was taking the baby to him. I then asked one of the doctors present at the time to follow her 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. I started crying and shouting and before you knew it, the labour room was filled with hospital staff.

“And when they realised what happened, they all rushed out to look for that nursing staff but she was nowhere to be found and her phone was switched off.

“The baby was then taken to the eye section of the hospital for examination and it was confirmed that both 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 grounds 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.”

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

Daily Trust Saturday learnt that the condition of the baby is gradually improving as she has been discharged from the hospital.

The only dilemma of the parents and doctors is the status of her sight which will only be known with time.