The safety of patients and employees at the San Fernando General Hospital is being questioned after a nurse reportedly assaulted a fellow employee with pepper spray on Thursday.
In a demonstration at the hospital’s foyer yesterday, daily paid workers led by the National Union of Government and Federated Workers (NUGFW) called on the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) to remove the nurse. Workers told the T&T Guardian that not only was the possession of pepper spray illegal, but the nurse used it against kitchen assistant Rigel Baboolal, who was only doing his job. They said she could have used it against a patient or visitor to the hospital.
Baboolal, 33, a kitchen assistant, has since filed a report with San Fernando police. Contacted yesterday, SWRHA’s acting CEO Gail Miller-Meade said she could not divulge whether the nurse was still on active duty or had been suspended. The alleged incident is a violation of the Regional Health Authority Conduct Regulation 2008.
As Baboolal joined his colleagues yesterday, he had to pause several times to wipe his watering eyes.
He explained that around 3 pm on Thursday he was transporting dishes from the wards in an elevator with the accused nurse and others. When the elevator stopped at Ward 13 B, he pushed the trolley onto the corridor so others could pass. While re-entering the elevator, he said this was when his attacker attempted to block him.
“She started to tell me how I was invading her personal space and she did not want me to come in. I don’t know her personally, only her face. She was telling other people to come onto the lift. I tried to go on and she continue quarrelling with me, telling people how I threatened her and cursed her. All I told this woman was to stop filming me with her phone. I did not like it.
“Then all of a sudden she pulled out something from her pouch like a little spray bottle and said, ‘I have something for alyuh.’ She just sprayed this thing in my eyes. I didn’t have time to react or cover my face as I didn’t know what she had in that bottle and I didn’t even think she would have done something like this. I started to scream and ran into Ward 13 B because of this burning pain. I could not see well but I ran to a sink and eventually a nurse came and help me to wash my eyes,” Baboolal said.
He reported the incident to his supervisor and was taken to the Accident and Emergency Department. While waiting, he said he was instructed by his union representative to report the assault to San Fernando police but was called back by medical staff to attend the eye clinic. His eyes were flushed and treated several times before he was allowed to leave.
“When I went up to Ward 8, the doctor checked my eyes and did a test. She said the acidic level was very high because since it is pepper spray, the extraction level was really high. She wash it a few more times and the acidity level was still high. She told the nurse to flush my eyes with saline and then when they checked it, I was ok to leave. My eyes are running water all now.
“I feel this nurse has a problem because she was coming to work with that pepper spray on her. The way she was getting on was like she had something and she was not afraid to use it. Two other nurses who saw told her to cool herself. They told her we were all colleagues, but she just continued getting on.”
In a media release yesterday, SWRHA gave an assurance to the public and staff abuse of staff was not condoned and the incident was being investigated. It stated that the investigation will be dealt with as a matter of urgency in accordance with the hospital’s staff conduct regulations.
