A New Jersey toddler is in critical condition and a nurse has been arrested after the toddler was severely burned during a bath administered by the nurse.
Little Destiny Malak, who is 2-years-old, suffered third-degree burns to her "lower extremities" when the nurse placed her in a bath filled with scalding-hot water at her home last Friday, NJ.com reported. She remains at the Burn Center at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.
Ellen Ejimkonye, of Hillside, was arrested Saturday and charged with aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child and child abuse, according to the criminal complaint obtained by NJ.com. Ejimkonye, 30, has also been ordered to give up her license.
The 2-year-old was left in the hot water for "at least 15 minutes for this to happen...There is absolutely permanent scarring- emotionally, not just physically," the child's uncle, Rob Gurgis, told NJ.com.
The mother, Marium Khella, was reportedly out of the house when Ejimkonye called and said her daughter had a rash on her right leg. Unaware of the situation, Khella told the nurse to put cream on the leg.
But the mother arrived home to see Destiny crying with wet clothes on. Khella had to cut the clothes off her child with a pair of scissors.
"I saw no skin," Khella told NJ.com. "The baby's skin came off in my hand."
Khella immediately call 911.
"I'm looking at her, 'What did you do to my baby,?' " the mother told NBC New York.
The mother told the station they hired Ejimkonye from an agency and that she was with them for a week. The agency did not respond to NBC's request for comment.
Doctors caring for the toddler fear her lungs could collapse. Her lungs were already weak because she was born premature, the mother told WABC-TV. Doctors also had to put gauze around Destiny's hands, which weren't burned, because she kept pulling at the medical tubes.
"She wants me to carry her, but I can't do anything," Kheller told WABC-TV.
