Is this Australia’s cruellest nurse? Young carer’s shocking ‘baby-killing’ act that left a beloved grandmother severely traumatised

EXCLUSIVE

A heartless nursing home nurse laughed as she reduced a traumatized dementia patient to tears by slamming a therapy doll’s head against a table, knowing the old woman thought it was a real baby.

Sudiksha Ahuja then tried to cover up her brutal baby-killing prank by convincing a younger colleague who witnessed the sick prank to lie about what she had seen.

The New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal this week found the young registered nurse guilty of “callous and deplorable” professional misconduct and has now had her registration revoked.

Despite the seriousness of the findings, Ahuja – known as “Sudi” by her friends – claims she has been “too busy” caring for vulnerable patients in her new job to read out the verdict against her.

“This is actually my first day back at work after my holiday,” she told Daily Mail Australia when contacted at Pearl Home Care – Mornington Peninsula on Wednesday.

“I haven’t had a chance to read the decision yet. I will do that later today when I have time. Please don’t call here again.”

Ahuja was working as a registered nurse at the Junee Multipurpose Service centre aged care facility when she pulled off her cruel prank in late 2021.

The care centre is located approximately 30 minutes’ drive north of Wagga Wagga in the NSW Riverina and is home to approximately 30 older residents.

It offers ‘Doll Distraction Therapy’ to a number of patients suffering from various stages of dementia.

“Doll Diversion Therapy is used to help women recall memories of their motherhood. It helps them calm down because they believe they are holding and caring for their baby,” the court said in its ruling on Monday.

Ahuja knew that one of her patients, an 82-year-old woman with advanced dementia, “thought the dolls were real babies” and that she liked to “dress them up and tuck them in” at night.

According to an “incident report” filed by a fellow nurse, “Sudi Ahuja was seen abusing the patient” after allegedly being encouraged by a colleague in the center’s dining room just after 3 p.m. on December 9, 2021.

“(The patient) loves to ‘take care of’ the dolls in the dining room because she thinks they are babies and she loves them,” the colleague noted in her report.

‘The two staff members deliberately made (the patient) watch as they banged the dolls’ heads against the table.

‘They knew this would provoke a reaction from (the patient), who was clearly upset and stressed and would repeatedly ask him to stop.

“I asked them to stop three times, but they kept going and laughed at (the patient’s) reaction.”

Another witness recalled watching in horror as Ahuja “grabbed the doll by the neck… then walked over to the dining room table, picked up the doll and slammed it hard onto the table, hitting her face.”

The patient was so traumatized by the callous act that she began to cry. Later, she returned to the dining room in her nightgown to check on the babies.

Despite a total of six witnesses testifying against her, Ahuja told the court that they all misjudged the situation.

Ahuja claimed it was the elderly dementia patient who had caused a scene after accidentally dropping one of her beloved dolls on the floor.

The nurse insisted she had only laughed to cheer up the 82-year-old woman as she tried to fix the broken doll for her.

The court rejected Ahuja’s testimony, finding that she had deliberately “smashed” the doll against the table for her own amusement. She had worked at the home long enough to know that her dementia patient “considered the dolls as her babies.”

“(Ahuja) did this knowing that (the patient) believed the dolls were real babies and with the intention of eliciting a response,” the Tribunal said in its judgment.

‘(She) behaved in this manner to entertain herself and (her colleague) at the expense of the patient.

‘There is no doubt that (Ahuja) and (her colleague) were laughing during the performance they performed.

‘We do not accept that this laughter was intended to reassure (the patient), improve her mood or cheer her up.

‘She found the situation funny and laughed at the patient’s misery.’

According to the court, Ahuja’s “attempted collusion” with one of the witnesses by contacting her via Snapchat and unsuccessfully trying to convince her to lie about the incident in order to avoid responsibility “increased her sense of guilt.”

She was found guilty of both unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.

Ahuja, who ended up at the Junee centre less than two months after the incident, moved to another state following the scandal and now works as a case manager at the Pearl Home Care facility in the town of Mornington, about an hour’s drive south of Melbourne.

The certified nurse did not answer a question about whether her new employers, who claim on their website that they “treat older Australians with dignity and care”, were aware of the investigation into her conduct at her old workplace.

The Health Care Complaints Commission, which prosecuted Ahuja’s case, has requested that her registration as a nurse be cancelled and she be banned from providing healthcare, with a non-review period of six to 12 months.

The Tribunal will determine an appropriate sentence after a new hearing on October 14.