Mother Demands Justice for Baby Girl Scalded to Death

Fifty-four-year-old Oluyemisi Adebayo was arrested in April 2015 just as she was attempting to flee to her native Nigeria following the death of a young child in her care. The licensed practical nurse is facing a second-degree murder charge that could result in a sentence of 25 years to life in prison upon conviction.

However, this news is likely cold comfort for the mother of the little girl. Cynthia Mondesire, a 32-year-old grieving mother, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Adebayo. The lawsuit was filed in Queens Supreme Court in July 2015 and Adebayo was served at Rikers Island, where she is being held pending her trial.

Family says Adebayo’s story doesn’t add up

Mondesire hired Adebayo to take care of her 23-month-old daughter, Naomi Mondesire. The toddler was born 25 weeks premature. She required a feeding tube and she was forced to breathe through a tracheotomy. Mondesire contracted with Harry’s Nurses Register to arrange for care for her little girl.

According to the detectives working on the investigation, Adebayo is believed to have submerged the little girl up to her waist in 130-degree water for 30 seconds. Adebayo claims to have tested the water with her own hand before she submerged the toddler. However, when Adebayo pulled the girl from the water, she allegedly noticed that skin on the girl’s legs was peeling off. Little Naomi died three days later at Nassau University Medical Center, despite the best efforts of the surgical team. She had thermal burns on 50 percent of her body.

The father of Naomi, Corey Brock, challenges Adebayo’s claim of having tested the water first. “She claimed it was a mistake. She claimed she checked the water. It’s impossible. If she had checked the water, she would have been burnt also.” Brock further suggested that Adebayo would not have tried to flee the country if she was innocent.

The little girl’s grandmother, Gardite Mondesire, 54, told reporters that she had returned to the apartment that evening “to find her tenant running around the home picking up pieces of her granddaughter’s skin,” according to Daily Mail. Gardite Mondesire called Adebayo to find out what happened, and claimed that Adebayo told her ‘It’s bad. I did something bad. The baby got burned.’

Not the first complaint regarding Adebayo

The heartbroken family has named Adebayo and Harry’s Nurses Register as defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that the employment agency did not adequately investigate a prior complaint filed against Adebayo. The first known complaint against the defendant arose from an alleged incident that also involved a special needs child. The two-year-old boy was under the care of Adebayo for only four days when the mother discovered that Adebayo was allegedly about to improperly administer the boy’s medication.

Had the dosage of seizure medication been administered then, five hours earlier than it should have been, the boy could have been in a coma, claimed the mother. Although the mother contacted police, she was informed that no charges would be filed because she caught the mistake before the medication was administered.

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