Lagos doctor faces police questioning after flogging nurse and asking her to kneel down in hospital

AUTHORITIES at the Awoyaya Hospital and Maternity Centre in Lekki in Lagos State are having to deal with a bizarre case of bullying at work after a doctor asked a nurse working with him to kneel down and then proceeded to flog her with his belt.

In the first such case of its kind, Dr Emmanuel Okolo, of the hospital located at Ibeju-Lekki, has been accused of brutalising nurse Dorcas Adeyera. Apparently, Dr Okolo and Ms Adeyera’s misunderstanding stemmed from the treatment of a patient rushed into the medical facility in the early hours of Monday.

Dr Okolo was alleged to have frowned on the admission of the accident victim without his consent, blaming Ms Adeyera for the action. Subsequently, the medical doctor allegedly summoned the 23-year-old nurse into his office and ordered her to kneel down.

However, when Ms Adeyera refused, 35-year-old Dr Okolo was alleged to have dealt her several slaps and also flogged her with a belt. In her report to the medical director of the hospital, Ms Adeyera said she was humiliated by Dr Okolo.

Ms Adeyera said: “Around 2am, there was an emergency outside the hospital and I stepped out 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 with no obvious respiratory distress but seemed to be in severe pain, so I went back inside the hospital to notify the doctor on call, Dr Emmanuel Okolo and immediately went back to move the patient inside the hospital.

“On getting there, I noticed that my colleague, who is a registered nurse and midwife, had already offered the patient a stretcher and the man’s relatives were trying to get the patient on it. Then, I noticed that the patient and his relatives were Hausas, and the people that brought him in a car were just helpers, so immediately they dropped the patient on the stretcher, they zoomed off.

“Back inside the hospital, Dr Okolo, who had been to the emergency room, saw the patient being carried towards him and he suddenly got angry and asked why the nurse didn’t allow him to see the patient first before bringing him into the hospital. He pointed at me, blaming me for it and said I should get out of his sight, which I did immediately, only for him to get angrier and order the patient to be taken out of the hospital as he was not ready to attend to him.”

She added that she left for the pharmacy after asking the patient to leave the premises on the instructions of the doctor. However, Ms Adeyera added that Dr Okolo came after her a few minutes later and dragged her 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 get down on my knees to which I declined as it was against the ethics of my profession to do that in uniform, so he gave me the first hard slap and repeated his order, after which 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 flogging me until the security men and my colleague came and tried to hold him. He said I was rude and he was not my age-mate," Ms Adeyera added.

She said she tried explaining to the security men what had happened but Dr Okolo did not allow her to speak, reaching for the sphygmomanometer and was about using it to hit her head when the security men took it from his hand, he then rained another round of slaps on her cheeks, after which she fell on the floor and he started punching her.

Ms Adeyera said she reported the case to the police at the Elemoro Police Station adding that she was treated at the Epe General Hospital. She said Dr Okolo had yet to report at the hospital since she reported the matter to the police who dropped him an invitation letter to come and visit them.