Florida ER Doctor Allegedly Struck Unresponsive Patient in Face Multiple Times While ‘Laughing and Mocking Her’

An emergency room doctor in Florida was arrested this week after police say he repeatedly struck a semi-unconscious female patient using the patient’s own hand because he believed she was faking a seizure. Dr. Onyekachi Nwabuko, 44, was taken into custody Wednesday and charged with three counts of battery {snip}

Onyekachi Nwabuko

{snip} Police said the victim also appeared to have sustained a “significant facial injury.”

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Per the affidavit, one of the nurses described to police that medical personnel commonly judge the state of a patient’s consciousness by laying the patient on their back, holding their hand a few inches above their face, and letting the hand drop. The patient “will either move or stop their hand to prevent it from striking their face,” a member of the hospital staff explained.

That staffer also reportedly witnessed Nwabuko’s interaction with the victim and told police that the doctor “clearly” was not following typical procedure because he believed the patient was “faking” her medical condition, the affidavit stated. The staffer said that despite seeing the patient clearly attempting to stop her hand from hitting her face, Nwabuko repeatedly used her hand to strike her face in three separate instances {snip}

After his initial interaction with the victim, Nwabuko allegedly left the examination room and returned a short while later, according to the document. When Nwabuko returned to the examination room a second time, he again used the patient’s own hand to strike her in the face several times, per the affidavit.

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“During the second battery, the Victim’s IV line, located in her left arm, came out and the Victim’s arm began bleeding on the Victim’s face and chest area,” a witness allegedly told police. Another witness quoted in the reports who described the second alleged battery said that the IV line was “ripped from the Victim’s arm causing her to bleed.”

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