Defence
opened Thursday in the trial involving one Ndey Touray, a former nurse at the
Brikama Health Centre, before Principal Magistrate Dayoh M. Small-Dago of the
Brikama Magistrates’ Court.
In her defence, Ndey Touray said she is a senior nurse and a community health midwife, adding that she had been working as a nurse since 31 December 1998 to date.
She said she was posted to Brikama Health Centre in December 2012 and since she started working as a nurse, she had never had any complaint against her.
She recalled 23 November 2013 when she took over her shift from her colleague at 8pm and went through the antenatal cards and the patograph.
She started calling the antenatal’s mothers one after the other and that was the time she came across one Binta Bah who was due for reassessment, she added.
She said she took her blood and fontal throb and did a vaginal examination for her and the result was 8cm dilated and she needed 10cm to be dilated.
She said she put her to bed and decided to help her change clothes with the help of her escort, Isatou Sowe.
Ms Touray said she was with her all the time and suddenly one Fatou Jawo entered the labour ward and called for help and she delivered her baby at 10: 25pm and was helping her complete the third stage of delivery which takes 45 mins.
She said while she was doing that, Adama and Fatou were busy on other areas, adding that they had three wards at Brikama Health Centre.
Adama was in the Antenatal ward, and Fatou was in the outpatient ward and at the same time busy on the lab, she told the court.
She said on her way from the lab, she heard Binta Bah calling for help that she and the baby were on the ground and Fatou rushed there and called her attention that she should come and help.
She said when she arrived, she met Binta and her baby on the ground and Fatou climbed and cut the cord.
She said the baby was a flat baby and had difficulty in breathing, adding that she said she decided to clean and wrap up the baby.
She further stated that she took the baby and sucked the mucus from his nose and put him on oxygen and continued monitoring the baby.
The condition was not favorable, so she decided to call a pedestrian to come and see the baby and asked Isatou Sowe to prepare if the pedestrian would refer them to EFSTH in Banjul.
She said the pedestrian asked her to continue the treatment because there was no oxygen in the ambulance that would support and if they removed the oxygen before they reached Banjul, he would die.
She left the baby in the hospital to ensure that the baby’s condition would be better but unfortunately, around 7pm the baby died, she added.
She said she called the escort and asked him about Binta’s husband and she explained it to the husband and asked him to take the baby home for burial.
She never asked them to pay D1,500 and she did not do the laboratory test, so she could not tell Samba that the mother had a sickness that she passed on the baby that caused the death of the baby, she said.
She said she was in her house on 24 November 2013 when she received a call from Njie, a CID officer, around 7pm that they went to the health centre to search for a patograph but it was not found and asked her to report to the CID office.
She said she went there in the morning and they went to the ward to search for the patograph and they found it, adding that they went to see Ensa Jarju, the officer in charge of the health centre at his office.
She said she did not produce the patograph on her own because it was not on her shift.
The case continues on 30 April 2014.
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