An auxiliary nurse, popularly known as Mama Esther, has been accused of deforming a two-year-old girl, Aishat Bamidele, by burning her two hands with fire in the Abule Egba area of Lagos State.
Our correspondent gathered that the incident, which has resulted in a situation where the toddler can no longer use her two hands effectively, occurred at 7, Ebun Ayodele Street, Abule Egba, Lagos. The nurse, in her effort to forcibly resuscitate the little girl who had suddenly suffered convulsion, decided to burn her hands and legs in fire.
A human rights activist, Mr. Ishola Agbodemu, explained that the action of the auxiliary nurse was caused by the ignorance of the toddler’s mother, who allowed the nurse to use such a cruel method to resuscitate her daughter.
He said, “To be sincere with you, it is high time our government flushed out everyone carrying out medical services illegally within our society. Most of them are not trained nurses or doctors, but they parade themselves as competent nurses and doctors and at the end, people’s lives will be endangered. Look at the case of this little girl. “When I saw her, and listened to what happened to her as narrated by her parents, I shed tears. I can’t believe it that a girl who was born with complete physical features is now made handicapped by a quack nurse’s ignorance,” he said.
Giving further account of the toddler’s pitiable case, Agbodemu added, “The whole issue happened when Aishat was taken to the auxiliary nurse in their area for resuscitation after she had fainted. But unfortunately for her, the nurse, after trying all she could and discovered that the little girl didn’t wake up, decided to put her hands and legs in fire.
“Even with that, the girl didn’t wake up, until she was taken to a hospital where she eventually woke up. The girl later became a handicap when she was discharged from the hospital the parents later took her to.”
Little Aishat’s father, Mr. Raimi Bamidele, lamented in a chat with our correspondent that his daughter’s predicament had ruined his family financially.
Bamidele said since the incident occurred, a lot of money had been spent, after he had sold off some of his personal belongings.
He said, “While I was away at my work place, my wife, Nimota Bamidele, called to tell me that she had rushed Aishat, our daughter, who is suffering from convulsion to Mama Esther, an auxiliary midwife’s place close to our house. But because my work place is very far from our home, I couldn’t get home on time.
“When I got home on that day, I was shocked with what I saw. I discovered that my daughter’s fingers and feet were badly burnt with fire. When I asked my wife about this, she told me she wasn’t allowed to go into the inner room where our daughter was being attended to.
“Having heard this, I requested from the nurse her reason for resolving to such cruel treatment on my daughter, and she told me that she didn’t have the injection she was supposed to administer on her and that we could not even afford to buy the injection if she told us to go and get it, and as a result, she decided to burn her fingers and feet with fire so that she could wake up.”
The distraught father added, “Though, I was annoyed by Mama Esther’s action, I immediately I took my daughter to P&E Clinic and Maternity home at Abule Egba, where she was later treated.
“To my surprise, after the treatment, I noticed that she could no longer stretch her fingers and her feet again as a result of what the nurse did to her, and since then, we had embarked on serious spending to help the little girl’s future, because if she grows up like that, it may affect her life.”
The mother of the toddler, Nimota, claimed that she was shut out when Mama Esther performed her cruel act.
She explained, “I didn’t know that was what the nurse was going to do to her when they asked me to stay outside. But when I couldn’t see them for a while, I decided to go inside and see if my daughter had been woken up. But to my surprise, when I got in, I discovered that my daughter’s feet and fingers were badly burnt by fire, and I raised the alarm. While we were dragging it, my husband came and we took her to a hospital where she was finally treated.
“On her hands that had become stiff after the burning, initially, we thought the hands would be opened when she had fully recovered. But to our surprise, the hands have remained folded, even after she was discharged from the hospital. And since then we have been spending a lot of money on her without any result.”
Ordeal at Orthopedic hospital
In their bid to secure proper treatment to correct their daughter’s deformed hands and legs, her father, Bamidele, claimed that the family had experienced some nightmare in the hands of the management of Igbobi Orthopedic Hospital in Lagos.
He said, “When I was referred to National Orthopedic, Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos State, they carried out series of tests on her, which cost us a lot of money. After all of this, the doctor told me that she would have to be operated upon immediately and we were charged N151, 700. I was told that the money was meant for the operation to be done on her two hands.
“I struggled to find the money and I paid it. But to my surprise, after I had paid the earlier amount charged, the doctors suddenly turned back and told me to pay additional N200, 000 for the operation, saying that the price of the material to be used for the operation had increased in market.”
Bamidele stated that the situation forced him me to go back to Mama Esther, the auxiliary nurse responsible for her daughter’s plight, for financial assistance.
He, however, said that the auxiliary nurse refused to part with even a dime until he dragged her to the police, adding, “We first took the case to Abule Egba Police Division where we were advised to settle the case without any trouble since we are like family friends. At the end, she contributed N75,000.”
Bamidele, however, lamented that his little daughter had yet to resume her crèche classes due to her worrisome condition.
