Nigerian-born nurse Omolayo Abayomi has had her licence withdrawn by the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) because she threw her hands up in the air and begged Jesus for help as a baby she was supposed to be taking care of suffered a heart attack.
In an unfortunate case, Ms Abayomi, 51, appeared to panic when the child who suffered from a chronic lung disease, turned blue and stopped breathing in his cot at home.
Apparently taken aback by the trauma of it all, she called for divine intervention more than 20 times before the boy’s mother told her to shut up.
A disciplinary hearing was told that Ms Abayomi was constantly saying Jesus help him and waving her arms around. It was revealed that she provided wholly inadequate care by leaving the frantic mother to resuscitate her lifeless son, while the father dialled 999.
Ms Abayomi was subsequently found guilty of a string of charges by the NMC at a hearing in central London. During the hearing, Sydney Topping, representing Ms Abayomi, insisted his client’s behaviour had represented no more than a bad day at the office and urged the panel to let her off with a caution but his pleas was rejected.
Mr Topping said, “Once in a while you have a bad day at the office. I would suggest that day, the registrant had a bad day at the office. It was no worse than that. She has bounced back since then.”
During the hearing, it was revealed that the child, referred to a Patient A and his twin sister were born three months premature at Homerton University Hospital in Hackney, east London, and as a result suffered from a number of serious illnesses and so required round-the-clock care.
Joanna Dirmikis, for the NMC, said Ms Abayomi had been employed by private nursing firm, Pediatric Nursing Link, to look after the infant, who required 22 hours of nursing care every day. She added that the parents were woken by a knock on their bedroom door at 5am to find their son lying lifeless after suffering respiratory cardiac arrest.
Paramedics rushed the boy to Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone, east London, before he was taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital on the same day for further treatment. Giving evidence, the tearful mother of the boy, said Ms Abayomi had effectively abandoned her during the incident.
She added, “The nurse was constantly saying Jesus help him and waving her arms around. She said it more than 20 times. I felt I had to do everything as at that point she was doing nothing to help my son.
“She never offered to take the lead at any point and at no point did she suggest calling 999. I can’t change what’s happened to my son, I know I did the best for him but the nurse just completely abandoned her duty.
“If I can save just one other person from having to go through what we have been through, then that’s what I want to do.” The panel heard Patient A, now aged five, made a full recovery from the incident but is still totally dependent on others for his care.
Ms Abayomi claimed the mother had pushed her away and refused to let her help and denied calling out for Jesus, panicking and failing to provide care or basic life support. She further denied failing to properly hand over the case to paramedics and making inaccurate and false notes about the incident.
She was cleared of specific charges that she suctioned the child’s tracheostomy tube or that she failed to record observations taken but was found guilty of misconduct and ruled unfit to continue working without restrictions. Striking Ms Abayomi off, panel chair, John Williams, said: “This was a failure to accept responsibility for her role in the events by the registrant.
“She has shown a lack of empathy with the parents of the child and there has been no admission or apology and therefore no insight. This failure is incompatible with her continuing to be a registered nurse.”
