A crisis is looming at the Awoyaya Hospital and Maternity Centre, Awoyaya, Ibeju lekki Lagos, after a medical doctor, identified as Dr Okolo Emmanuel allegedly assaulted a nurse, Adeyera Dorcas.
FELLOW NURSES AFRICA gathered that the duo had a confrontation at the early hours of Monday over a patient.
A patient was said to have been rushed into the hospital at about 2:00am on Monday by some groups of good Samaritans, immediately they called on the nurse to see the patient, she went to notify the Doctor, while she was away, her colleague on shift offered a stretcher to take the patient in for the Doctor to see.
As soon as the Dr got to know that the patient had been taken in, he flared up and started abusing the Nurse for not allowing him to see the patient before taking him inside the hospital and ordered the nurse to ensure she chase the patient and relatives out of the hospital environment as he's not going to attend to them, not even a first aid.
The Nurse getting angry already by the doctor's attitudes told the patient and relatives to get out of the hospital, this she said and left for the pharmacy when the Dr. came for her, dragged her out of the pharmacy and started beating her right in the presence of the patient.
Adeyera in a report she wrote to the Medical Director of the hospital Dr.Olafisoye popularly known as Baba ibeji said some nurses and health attendants at the hospital were witnesses.
In her report she said "I, Nurse Adeyera Dorcas was at my duty post on the said day alongside my other colleague and two health attendants. At about 2:00 am, there was an emergency just outside the hospital door, inside a car. I stepped out of the hospital to have a clear look at the patient who was said to have been involved in an accident and already fractured a bone in his left leg.
The patient was conscious and alert, no obvious respiratory distress but was noticed to be in severe pains. I went back inside the hospital to notify the doctor on call in person of Dr. Okolo Emmanuel. I told him there's an accident emergency outside the hospital and immediately went back to move the patient inside the hospital.
On getting there, I noticed that my colleague, Registered Nurse/ Midwife Adebiyi had offered the patient a stretcher and the relatives were trying
to get the patient on it then I noticed the patient and relatives were Hausa and the owners of the car were just helpers. Immediately they dropped the patient on the stretcher, they zoomed off.
Back inside the hospital, Dr Okolo had been to the emergency room the patient was not there as he was about leaving the emergency room, the patient was already being carried towards him. He suddenly got angry and asked why the nurse didn't allow him to see the patient before bringing him into the hospital. He pointed at me and blamed me and then said I should get out of his sight which I did immediately, only for him to get angrier and ordered the patient to be taken out of the hospital as he was not ready to attend to him. He came to me and told me to make sure the patient leaves the hospital And started blaming me. I felt so bittered about the situation and told the patient to get out of the hospital.
I left for the pharmacy with the hope that the patient's relatives will source for means of leaving gradually only for the doctor to come in to me few minutes later and dragged me into his office. I was shocked and tried to remove my hands from his hold but he was too fierce. In his office, he told me to be on my kneels to which I declined as it was against the ethics of my profession to do that in uniform, he gave me the first hard slap and repeated his utterance,I refused and called my colleague for help. I tried to get out of his office but he dragged me back and reached for his belt and started beating me until the security men and my colleague came and tried to hold him, he then made mention that I was rude and he's not my age mate, I tried explaining to the security men what had happened but he didn't allow me to speak out, he reached for the sphygmomanometer and was about hitting it on my head when the security man took it from his hand and another round of slaps on cheeks continued, this time around, I fell on the ground he continued punching me. My colleague who was an eye witness went on her kneels and started pleading on my behalf but Dr Okolo never stopped beating me until he was satisfied.
Another Nurse working at that facility who doesn't want her name in prints confirmed the incident, according to her, Dr Okolo is an aggressive man and can go to any length to deal with anybody whether patients or nurses.
I once had issue with him and he categorically said he was going to kill me and that nothing will happen, she said.
Another eye witness, Nrs. Bamitale ( Not real name ) also confirmed the incident.
According to her, this is not the first case of assault against Nurses in this hospital. A patient had beaten up a nurse in this hospital some months back and nothing was done by the management. The management doesn't care about the nurses' welfare, they treat us as second class citizens. Immediately this issue happened, we notified the MD and his response was that he would look into the issue later as he's not ready to sack the Dr for now, she said.
Fellow Nurses Africa correspondents visited the hospital to listen to the doctor's side of the story but he wasn't met on seat.
A colleague, Dr Obi who spoke on his behalf said he couldn't really say much about the incident as he wasn't on call during the incident.
He however said no matter what could have transpired, beating a up nurse is never ethical.
All efforts to reach Dr. Okolo proved abortive as calls placed through to him were neither answered nor returned.
Recall that two weeks ago, a nurse was said to have been assaulted by a doctor in Ondo state and till now, nothing has been done to address the matter.
A case of assault against professional nurses or even fellow human beings is a gross violation of one's dignity which is against every known standard in the world.
If assault like this is allowed to linger without actions to stem the ugly tides, it will degenerate to a point where nurses would be killed and nothing would be done to address it or provide justice.
Fellow Nurses Africa call on relevant agencies, authorities and individuals to as a matter of urgency and alacrity rise to the occasion by ensuring that those found culpable in this dastardly act are brought to book and made to face the consequences of their actions so that ugly incidences like this will be totally eradicated from work places especially against nurses.
Oluwatosin K. Odunayo, FNA News
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