JACOB:MIDWIFE WHO WENT IN SEARCH OF NAPPIES AS MUM GAVE BIRTH SUSPENDED
A midwife who abandoned a mother while her baby was being born to go in search of nappies has been suspended for just six months.
Eunice Ogbonna-Jacob, 51, deserted the little girl’s parents and left them frantic with worry when the child was born with the umbilical cord round its neck.
She also ordered the woman’s husband to go home and collect and bag for the baby while his wife was in the final stages of labour.
The mother, referred to only as Patient A, was left in ‘obvious and patent distress’, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.
Ogbonna-Jacob was found guilty of misconduct after charges that she failed to provide appropriate care during the birth at Homerton University Hospital in Hackney, east London, were found proved.
The panel will now go on to decide which sanction to impose. The most serious penalty is removal from the nursing register.
Panel chair Helen Mbakwe said: ‘If a midwife walks out on a patient during delivery without good reason, we regard it as a serious failure.
‘We view this most seriously and it has caused us grave concern.’
Ogbonna-Jacob was originally struck off the nursing register at an NMC hearing in June 2009, after she was found guilty of misconduct in relation to the same incident.
But that decision was quashed by the High Court and a new hearing is taking place in central London.
The latest panel decided a six month ban was appropriate.
Ms Mwakbe added: ‘This matter has been hanging over her for six years and this delay
is through no fault of hers.
‘This appears to be an isolated episode on a particular morning.
‘There has been misconduct, but not the sort that is fundamentally incompatible with continuing on the register.
‘We think six months is appropriate in light of the length of time it has taken to bring this matter to a conclusion.’
Patient A had arrived at the hospital in the early hours of April 26, 2005 in labour with her third child, wanting gas and air, the panel was told.
Later that day, Ogbonna-Jacob ordered her husband to home and fetch a bag with the baby’s things, despite his wishes that he should be present at the birth.
When he returned without nappies, the midwife went off in search of hospital supplies while his wife was in advanced labour.
Other midwives had to attend to the child after the worried parents raised the alarm when their child was born with the umbilical cord round its neck.
The baby survived and did not suffer any long term damage, the panel was told.
Ogbonna-Jacob attended the first stage of the re-hearing in June, but stormed out after her request to hold it in private was rejected.
She claimed she was at risk of attack by ‘Asian youths’ if the hearing was heard in public and reported, but the panel rejected her request to hold the hearing behind closed doors.
As she walked out the door, she told the panel: ‘Have a wonderful day and god bless you all.’
She has not attended the resumed hearing and has not given evidence to the panel.
Ogbonna-Jacob, of Bethnal Green Road, Bethnal Green, east London, was found guilty of failing to provide appropriate care, pressurising Patient A’s husband to go home and fetch the bag and failing to communicate in a polite and professional manner.
Charges that she failed to keep proper records, failed to explain when leaving the patient she was going or that another midwife would bet taking over and that she failed to record the handover were also found proved.
She was cleared of failing to hand over Patient A’s care, giving an epidural without her consent, carrying out an invasive procedure and ‘dangling’ the placenta over the mother’s head following delivery.
A charge that she had left the delivery suite to watch a training DVD the previous day was dropped by NMC.
ends
