A Taipei Medical University Hospital nurse inserted a suppository into the vagina of a one-year-old, sparking fury, condemnation and criticism from the toddler’s mother, according to a report in the Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper on Saturday.
The child, nicknamed Hsiao Niu (小妞), was taken to the hospital on Thursday last week after running an extremely high fever of 41.2°C, the report said.
The nurse visited the parents at 5pm and told them that a physician prescribed a suppository to fight the fever, the report said.
The mother turned away from her daughter to get a fresh diaper before the nurse inserted the suppository, Apple Daily reported, adding that the mother was startled to hear Hsiao Niu start crying loudly. When the mother turned back to the bed, she saw the suppository falling from her daughter’s vagina, the paper reported.
The mother immediately berated the nurse for the mistake, the report said, and quoted the mother as expressing further shock when she saw the nurse insert the suppository into the child’s anus.
“I thought they would have at least brought another suppository,” the paper quoted the mother as saying.
When the mother asked whether her child’s hymen was intact, the nurse said that it was and added that the toddler experienced only slight swelling, the report said.
The report said a physician from the department of gynecology and obstetrics, the nursing department supervisor and social workers met with the toddler and her mother about two hours later.
After gaining consent from Hsiao Niu’s mother and performing a checkup on the infant, the physician confirmed that the infant’s hymen was intact, the paper said.
The mother continued to doubt the hospital’s claims that her daughter’s hymen was intact, despite the physician’s assurances, the report said, quoting the mother as criticizing the hospital for being unprofessional.
Hospital spokeswoman Chang Hui-chu (張惠珠) said that patients should be lying down on their left side for a suppository to be inserted properly, the report said.
It is likely that the nurse saw the child was asleep and did not want to wake her, and decided to proceed without adhering to policy, Chang told Apple Daily reporters.
Chang said the hospital apologized to Hsiao Niu’s parents and had promised to take good care of the child, adding that it would also use the incident as a case study for students.
Commenting on the case, plastic surgeon Huo Tian-nian (霍天年) said the nurse might have been very inexperienced to mistake a vagina for an anus.
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