Pregnant Woman Who Was Brutally Beaten And Robbed While In Labour Narrates Her Ordeal

A heavily pregnant woman who was brutally beaten and robbed by a young man on a bike in broad daylight when she was on her way to hospital to give birth has narrated her painful ordeal.

On the 26th of June, Patience Chukwu was rushing to Homerton Hospital in Hackney, London, at around 9 am, when she stopped to lean against a wall on Leadale Road for support.

She brought out her mobile phone to call her sister – her birthing partner – when she was suddenly confronted by a man on a bike who tried to grab the phone.

Mirror reports that the man snatched her phone, but in the struggle that followed, she was dragged to the floor and repeatedly, he punched her in the head. Patience grabbed the thief’s jumper in an attempt to stop him, but she ended up being dragged along the street behind his bike.

She begged the thief to stop, clearly telling him she was pregnant, but instead of leaving her alone he raised his right arm and took aim at her stomach.

Trying to protect her unborn child, she bent forward, receiving the punch hard on her head. The man then punched her twice more in the face.

The shock of the ordeal caused her baby to become distressed. She was rushed to intensive care following an emergency Caesarian which took place when midwives were unable to detect the baby’s heartbeat.

The birth of her baby boy Ozil, whose name means “a child who is born with divine strength” had to be induced, and he was kept in a critical care unit for a week before being allowed home. At eight weeks old, he still suffers from seizures as a result of the attack.

At two-month-old, the baby boy still suffers from painful seizures “almost daily” as a result of the attack and the terrified mum is now finding it hard to walk down the street or use her phone in public.

“He was pulling me, dragging me with the bike, I was pleading. I said ‘please, I’m in labour, as you can see I’m heavily pregnant’.

“He didn’t want to listen, he didn’t want to stop, he was trying to ride the bike.

“He was hitting me to let go but I refused to let go. So I shielded my baby, with my hand and I bent down, the blow went to my eyes and everything became so dark.

“I couldn’t see so I let go… and the boy started pedalling away,” she narrated.

 

Immediately after the attack Ms Chukwu, who was shivering and shaking, was attended to by members of the public until the police arrived. One officer asked her questions while the other timed her contractions as they waited for an ambulance.

In hospital, she was not able to hold her baby until early the next morning, and when she later saw him in an incubator she felt “sad and responsible” for his suffering.

“I saw all the wires connected, I felt so responsible that my baby was going through that. I felt that if I had not run after the man or held on to him, being dragged by him, my baby might not have gone through that stress.

“But I was told even if I didn’t go after the boy or hold him, the shock alone that my phone was snatched unexpectedly is also enough for the baby to go through that same shock, that stress.”

The 40-year-old mum of two continues: ”I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel free going out now.

“I’m so afraid of people coming towards me… And no matter how important the call is, if I have a phone call, if my phone is ringing as long as I’m outside I don’t pick it (up).”

“Now if I see someone coming, especially a man on a bike, I will look for another alternative route to take.”

She is now pleading for anyone with information to come forward, “not for me or my son but for another woman and another baby not to go through what we went through and the ordeal we are going through at the moment”.

It will be “difficult” to move on until her attacker is brought to justice, she added.

Photo credit: PA/ Eyevine