Fear of an impending sack has gripped medical doctors and other health workers of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, who were recently queried following the death of a pregnant woman.
Following the incident, the authorities of the hospital, and the Association of Resident Doctors, ARD, LUTH chapter, instituted panels to investigate the circumstances which led to the death of Mrs. Margaret Akingbehin, 45, during childbirth on February 28, 2013.
While the ARD has completed its investigations with its report ready, that of LUTH management is still ongoing, and has stopped the ARD from releasing its findings.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with National Mirror, Dr. Bankole Adebambo, General Secretary of ARD, said: “I am not permitted to make comment on this case as the hospital has instituted a committee to look into it and we are also eagerly awaiting the outcome of the panel’s report. But we as an association have also set up a committee to look into the issue and have studied the report of the committee but we are constrained from making the report of the committee a public for now.
“All of the members of the committee are workers in LUTH and since hospital as a bigger body has instituted a panel, we have to wait for the outcome of their findings; we can’t preempt their investigations with our own report; so we are also waiting.”
National Mirror’s investigations however revealed that representatives of the Federal Ministry of Health last week Monday joined the panel instituted by management of LUTH. One of them told our reporter on condition of anonymity that the investigation was to be concluded on Friday and results releasing this week.
But the Chief Medical Director, LUTH, Prof. Akin Oshibogun, told our reporter over the weekend that investigations are still ongoing.
Findings by National Mirror revealed that almost all the health workers on duty on that fateful day which included five doctors are presently on suspension. They have been ordered by management of LUTH to stay away until investigations are concluded, and were paid only half salaries last month.
David Akingbehin, husband of the deceased and his family had three weeks ago petitioned the Medical Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN, and the Chief Medical Director of LUTH. They insisted that the negligence or preferential treatment given to a patient, who displaced Margaret in the theatre killed her.
According to Akingbehin, he watched his wife being stopped from undergoing surgery in the theatre twice because of preferential treatment was being given to other persons who had relation in LUTH.
Akingbehin, who is still grieving over the demise of his wife disclosed to our reporter that he learnt that someone else had been rushed to the theatre, which was why his wife had to be taken back to the ward on two different occasions, adding that “I overheard some of the nurses say in Yoruba, ‘We need to attend to staff first”.
He explained that the way they said it made it unclear whether the patient who had displaced his wife was a wife of a staff or an employee of LUTH.
According to him, when he started complaining about his wife’s condition and how the medical personnel had neglected her, he was sent out. At this point, his late wife was kept alone waiting at the pre-surgical room of the theatre.
He said that the health workers on duty did not even care about her while she was in pain. After being ordered out, he could still hear the nurses chatting.
“While I was waiting outside, I think a nurse must have noticed she was groaning. I heard someone say, ‘the baby’s head is showing, don’t push’ But the baby later came out and it was found dead in the room. Some moment later, my wife died in the same room and I did not know. They told me nothing until about 4p.m.”
When contacted, one of the doctors on duty that day, said that Mrs. Akingbehin was not neglected nor a staff of LUTH given preferential treatment over her as alleged by her husband.
“The husband doesn’t know what he is talking about. He wasn’t in the pre-surgical room of the theatre. He is making unconfirmed statements. We tried all within our reach to save her.
“The patient whom he claims was given preferential treatment over his wife is not a staff of LUTH, the patient was on the elective list scheduled for the day while his wife was on the emergency list. For reasons best known to the doctors who were supposed to have carried out the operation on the wife, they never did, those of us to do that for the elective went ahead to do ours and that is the woman he is referring to,” he stated.
A senior consultant with the teaching hospital also gave a different account of what happened.
According to the doctor, Mrs. Akingbehin’s death could have been prevented.
“That morning, she was brought into the labour room by 6a.m. A consultant sectioned her and someone else for CS. The doctors didn’t move until about 3p.m. or thereabouts. The doctors didn’t handle the emergency list, which is the one on which she was placed. The doctors for elective did theirs; while the woman started bleeding after being wheeled out of the theatre.
“The second time Mrs. Akingbehin was displaced as claimed by the husband was still for the elective case because the woman who had been operated on started bleeding profusely thus had to be attended to first.
“The late patient was on the red line. She was shouting all the while with no one attended to her but later went silent. I guess that is when she had died.
“You see, I feel pained that the woman died but she didn’t want a CS initially. She had previously done an anatomy scan elsewhere and was asked to bring her result which she never did until the day of delivery. Upon seeing her result, she was told and realised that she had no option but agree to the CS.
“Had she brought the result on time, perhaps all these wouldn’t have occurred but this is not to say that the doctors should be absolved of carelessness because as things are, we still haven’t established exactly what happened between 6a.m. to 3p.m. when she purportedly died. We haven’t been able to prove beyond reasonable doubts that both operations- emergency and the elective case could have been managed. But I have a feeling from all I have heard from those involved that it was an avoidable death. But these are part of what the panels are trying to also establish.
“The wife of the staff is not the elective patient that was wheeled into the theatre instead of the late patient. The staff ’s wife being referred to by Mr. Akingbehin was operated after his wife died and it was in another theatre. She had lost both babies (twins) as a result of complications thus taken elsewhere to deliver normally instead of being opened up for surgery,” he concluded.
All efforts to speak with the hospital’s Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Hope Nwanwolo, as at the time of going to press was futile as she was said to be in “a meeting.”
Meanwhile, a senior administrative officer in LUTH who spoke with our reporter yesterday said: “I doubt if you will get the PRO because she is a civil servant and would have to wait for her boss to talk before she can make any comment.”
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