A Nigerian nurse based in Queens, New York, United States, has been arrested in the scalding death of a special-needs toddler after she submerged her in 130-degree bath water for 30 seconds. According to Daily Mail, the licensed nurse practitioner, Oluyemisi Adebayo, 54 was arrested on Wednesday at around 7 a.m in JFK Airport just as she was about to flee the country and board a flight back home to Nigeria. Authorities said the 54 year old nurse who was hired a day before the incident was taking care of 23-month-old Naomi Mondesire on April 21st when she prepared her for a bath.
The nurse reportedly told detectives that she tested the water with her own hand before placing Naomi in the tub, and subsequently noticed Naomi’s skin peeling off after taking her out from the bath.Doctors however told police that Adebayo’s description of how the baby was burned was inconsistent with the nature of her injuries.
Authorities believe that Naomi was submerged up to her waist in 130-degree water for 30 seconds and the little girl died from thermal injuries to 50 per cent of her body on Monday, three days after doctors at Nassau University Medical Center carried out a surgery on her.
Naomi’s mother, 32-year-old Cynthia Mondesire, said she had had two miscarriages before giving birth to Naomi – her only surviving child, prematurely at 25 weeks.
Naomi’s grandmother was heartbroken and furious at the woman she had hired to look after the little girl just one day before she was scalded.
Gardite Mondesire, 54, said she returned to her apartment on Memphis Avenue in the Rosedale section of Queens at around 7.25pm Tuesday to find her tenant running around the home picking up pieces of her granddaughter’s skin.
Adebayo who initially claimed she didn’t know how Naomi got scalded, later admitted it was a mistake.
However, there are reports that Adebayo who has been a licensed nurse practitioner for more than 16 years, could face up to 25 years to life imprisonment if convicted.
Source: Daily mail.