Nurse put tape over patient’s mouth

A nurse who put surgical tape over a severely brain damaged patient admitted yesterday that his action amounted to professional misconduct.

It is also alleged that Bimbo Paden, a Filipino nurse at St John’s Community Hospital in Sligo, placed a sling under the patient on June 26 last year without the assistance of a colleague.

It is the first fitness to practise hearing for a nurse to be heard in public at the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.

Earlier this year, a judge said that while it had been proven that Mr Paden had placed surgical tape across a patient’s mouth, he was dismissing the charge under the Probation Act.

The District Court judge also recommended that Mr Paden, should not be removed from the nurses’ register because he had an unfair workload and it would be disproportionate.

The inquiry heard that the 42-year-old father of three, had worked at St John’s Community Hospital since 2001, shortly after arriving from the Philippines.

At the centre of the inquiry is ‘Patient A’, a 49-year-old, a resident at the hospital for 13 years since suffering a brain haemorrhage.

Counsel for the board’s chief executive, Neasa Bird, said the only way the patient could communicate was by making a sound for a long or sustained period of time.

Ms Bird told the inquiry that, aside from feeding, all of the patient’s other needs had to be administered by two staff members.

She said there was no possible justification for putting tape over the patient’s mouth or placing him in a hoist.

She said it was not accepted from a staffing viewpoint that Mr Paden had to act in the way he did.

Counsel for Mr Paden, Noel Whelan, said he accepted putting surgical tape over the mouth of patient A amounted to professional misconduct.

However, while he accepted that he did place a sling under the patient and that it was inappropriate, it did not amount to professional misconduct.

Mr Whelan said Mr Paden had cared for Patient A for more than six years and they got on very well together.

Mr Paden said he was horrified by what he did and had told a previous HSE inquiry that he was ashamed of his actions, they were completely out of character, and he was a caring, conscientious, and diligent nurse deferential to authority and not one to complain.

He sais while not wanting to excuse his actions, he had wanted to alleviate the distress caused to a nearby terminally ill patient because of the noise being made by Patient A.

Staff nurse Treacy Ryan told the inquiry she discovered that Mr Paden had placed surgical tape on Patient’s A mouth when she returned from a mid-morning break.

Mr Paden had drawn the curtains around Patient A’s bed. He was standing at one end of the bed and Ms Ryan recalled that he told her the tape had only been on Patient A’s mouth for a minute and he would take it off now.

After Mr Paden removed the tape Ms Ryan sat for a while with Patient A holding his hand. She told him she was going to report what happened to the manager.

The hearing continues today.