A nurse who threw her hands into the air and begged for Jesus to help as a baby suffered a heart attack has been thrown out of the profession.
Omolayo Abayomi ‘panicked’ when the child, who suffered from a chronic lung disease, turned blue and stopped breathing in his cot at home.
The 51-year-old called for divine intervention more than 20 times before the vulnerable boy’s mother told her to ‘shut up’.
‘The nurse was constantly saying “Jesus help him” and waving her arms around,’ a hearing was told.
The nurse ‘provided wholly inadequate care’ by leaving the frantic mother to resuscitate her lifeless son, while the father dialled 999.
Abayomi was found guilty of a string of charges by the Nursing and Midwifery Council at a hearing in central London.
Sydney Topping, for 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.
‘Once in a while you have a bad day at the office,’ he said.
‘I would suggest that on April 8 the registrant had a bad day at the office. It was no worse than that. She has bounced back since then.’
The hearing heard 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 Abayomi had been employed by private nursing firm Paediatric Nursing Link to look after the infant, who required 22 hours of nursing care every day.
The parents were woken by a knock on their bedroom door at 5am on April 8, 2007, to find their son lying lifeless after suffering respiratory cardiac arrest, the panel was told.
‘While Mrs A was trying to resuscitate the child, Mr A called 999,’ said Miss Dirmikis.
‘The twin sister of the little boy was also present during the incident and can be heard crying in the background during the call.’
‘She panicked and at one stage even summoned divine intervention, calling for Jesus,’ she added.
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, a tearful Mrs A said Abayomi had effectively ‘abandoned’ her during the incident.
‘The nurse was constantly saying “Jesus help him” and waving her arms around,’ she said.
‘She said it more than 20 times. I felt I had to do everything - 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.
Abaymo claimed the mother had pushed her away and refused to let her help.
She denied calling out for Jesus, panicking and failing to provide care or basic life support.
The nurse further denied failing to properly handover 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 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.’
