A nurse has been struck off the medical register after dropping a 4-month-old baby on his head while she was drunk. The Aberdeen Press and Journal reported that Rachel Lynn, 38, dropped a 4-month-old baby head first on to a road while drunk as she went to buy vodkain June last year. The incident occurred while she was employed by Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
She was convicted of wilfully ill-treating a young boy "for whom she had parental responsibilities" at Inverness sheriff court in January and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. The Nursing and Midwifery Council [NMC] has now concluded that her fitness to practice is "currently impaired".
Shortly before the incident took place, Lynn was seen on CCTV wheeling a pushchair to a local shop where she bought a half bottle of vodka, according to the Press and Journal.
Later that day, a married couple saw Lynn holding the child over her shoulder by the ankles before dropping him head first on to a road surface. The paper reported that he suffered a four-inch fracture to the left side of his skull and was discharged from hospital a few days later.
The couple went over to assist her, according to the NMC, and later told police she was "out of it", that they could smell alcohol on her breath, and that she was slurring her words.
Lynn accepted that her behaviour was "horrendous", according to the hearing's outcome document.
NMC panel chair Tim Mann said: "The behaviour that led to these convictions has not been curtailed and it considered that there was a pattern of behaviour which increased the risk of repetition.
"Due to the seriousness of the convictions in this case and the lack of appropriate insight, the only appropriate and proportionate sanction to impose would be a striking-off order."