Mr. Frank Ogundana, 50, is presently in deep grief over the loss of
his two children within a space of six months. His eight-year-old
daughter, Donna, who was admitted at the General Hospital Ikorodu on
Monday April 8, died last Thursday under questionable circumstances
morbidly reminiscent of the death of his only son at the same hospital
about six months ago through what he described as “doctors’
negligence’’.
Ogundana, an indigene of Ekiti State, wants the Lagos State
Government to check “the excesses of doctors at the Ikorodu General
Hospital” over allegation that no fewer than 20 couples in his community
may have lost their children in similar questionable circumstances at
this tertiary health institution.
Donna, a primary four pupil of Lagos State Polytechnic Staff School
was diagnosed at birth as being afflicted with Sickle Cell anemia. But a
later test was to confirm that she was AA. Indeed she was never
admitted in any hospital until her predicament of April 8.
According to Ogundana, a lecturer with the Lagos State Polytechnic,
Donna had never been admitted or transfused since she was diagnosed to
be AA in LUTH about five years ago.
Ogundana, who lives at Maya-Adamo, Ikorodu gave Vanguard Metro, VM, a
vivid account of what transpired after his daughter was admitted at the
Ikorodu General Hospital. ‘’I have four children, three girls and a son
but my only son died at the Ikorodu General Hospital due to doctors’
negligence, that was six months ago.
My daughter had never been sick until 2012 when she complained of
general body pains and under medical advice, we placed her on prescribed
medication. When we returned from church on Sunday, she complained of
body pains and was given her medicines. But I realised she did not sleep
throughout the night and we took her to General Hospital Ikorodu on
Monday April 8 and she was placed on admission.
“Some medical tests were carried out on her and her blood count was
29 per cent, while malaria parasite was negative. She was treated for
malaria, pains and also given sedatives. But rather than get better, my
daughter’s condition got worse as she complained of increasing pains.
On Tuesday, she started crying frequently and her eye balls became
yellow. Unfortunately, doctors were not available to attend to her. I
walked up to a nurse to complain about the situation but she said the
symptoms were normal.
On Wednesday, I could not bear it any longer as my daughter could not
sleep for 24 hours; her heart was beating fast but the nurse on duty
said they have increased the sedatives which means she would sleep for
longer hours but this was not so.
Frantic with worry I went round the hospital to see if a doctor could
help out; I eventually came across the doctor who placed her on
admission but he asked me to exercise patience. I left the hospital by
8pm while my wife stayed back so that I could attend to our two kids at
home.
“By this time, I thought of transferring my daughter to another
hospital but the doctors were not available to issue a report. The
nurses said they had severally drawn the doctors’ attention to my
daughter’s worsening condition without an appropriate response.
My wife told me that one of them, Dr. Abu, promised to show up but he
never did. By11pm, I drove to the hospital. As soon as I approached the
gate, I heard my daughter screaming. I parked the car and started
running to the children ward. There were two doctors on duty, a male and
a female, but the duo refused to show up in the ward.
In annoyance, I followed the nurses to the doctors’ office and to my
greatest surprise, one of them, a female, was sound asleep. After
waiting for a while, I forced the door open; my action created a scene
which forced the male doctor out of his office. But rather than
addressing my problem, he accused me of peeping into a female doctor’s
office which aggravated my annoyance and I dragged the female doctor to
the ward.
“On noticing my daughter’s predicament and without carrying out any
medical examination, she administered sedatives and told me not to
worry; that was at midnight.
“My daughter woke up around 6am of Thursday April 11 and she was very
weak. By that time, her blood level had reduced drastically to eight
per cent and my lovely daughter died in my arms. I am heart-broken;
doctors in Ikorodu General Hospital have thrown me into mourning ,’’ he
narrated at length.
Contacted, the Public Relations Officer to the hospital Mr. Yekini,
referred VM to the Medical Director who was not available for interview.
On his part, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, said
in a text message that: “I am not aware of this case but will find out”.
