EKO HOSPITAL, A BUILDING OF DEATHS?

This piece is a hard one for me to write, hard and very difficult. As I write this, I am filled with deep sorrow for what could have been that was not. This piece is not intended to do anything but to warn unsuspecting members of the public. A warning that is necessary at this time because “evil deeds thrive when good men do nothing”

My discourse is centred on the level of mismanagement, inefficiency and a total lack of respect for life exhibited by management and staff of EKO Hospital on Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja.

My friend’s wife, Dolapo, a young mother of 2 boys , with a promising banking career, pregnant with the 3rd child had complained of leg pains to her husband on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. Her husband took her to the EKO Hospital for treatment (their registered HMO provider), they were told that the leg pains were normal for pregnant women at her stage and were subsequently given some paracetamol tablets to use.

Getting home, the pains did not subside, in fact, it grew worse. It got to a point that she could not walk with the legs on her own. The husband had no choice but to return to the hospital on Friday April 3, 2015 at around 3pm when it was obvious things were not getting better.  At that point, The doctor on duty advised them to wait for the consultant and Dolapo was made to sit out the ‘’wait’’ in a wheelchair as her legs could no longer support and carry her, in any case the consultant did not show up until Saturday afternoon being 04/04/1. She repeatedly beckoned on the staff on duty to perform a CS and safely get the baby out as she could sense and feel that something was ominously wrong.  The pregnancy was well into 8 months. Some scan were recommended and the person to conduct the scan had reportedly closed for the day and  only surfaced at about 9pm on Friday and the wait dragged well into the night  

Dolapo was in pains on the wheel chair, she was being moved from her ward to the scanning room when the head of the baby came out on the wheel chair, her husband screamed and rushed her quickly into the elevator, yes, ELEVATOR!!. The baby could not stand the trauma, he came out in transit, right there in the elevator. A nurse had to hold the baby’s head, supporting it while the elevator goes to labour theatre, the baby was pulled out before they could make it to the theatre. This was at 9.30pm on Friday. The baby became the centre of attention for the hospital staff of Duty while neglecting  Dolapo all alone for more than 1 hr 30 mins while they attended to the baby to revive him.

She was left unattended to, in pains, right there in the theatre. She was eventually moved back to her ward . The consultant eventually turned up around 4pm on Saturday. The husband engaged him and he requested that some tests be done to ascertain what level of treatment or care to give. He was told she (the wife) would be fine and the test results would be ready by Tuesday because of the holidays.

 On Sunday, April 5, 2015,  at about 8am in the morning, I visited her in the hospital and sat beside her on the bed offering words of encouragements. She was still in pains, and she was hardly audible, she could only answer in nods and made attempts at a faint smile to reassure myself and her husband that she would be fine.

It came as a rude shock when I called the husband at about 12 pm and he was crying profusely, saying Dolapo is lying down lifeless and that I should please pray. I was to say the least devastated, I was asking loads and loads of questions and he kept saying please pray, pray.

I got to the hospital to meet the lifeless body on the bed, she was dead! What happened? How did this happen? Nobody could offer any explanation. There was no doctor around, I asked the nurse on duty and she just said she is dead. I recalled she was eating when I left earlier, how could she have gone from eating to being dead in less than 3 hrs?

The husband told me she was given an injection to suppress the pains on her leg and immediately started gasping for breath, oxygen tanks were brought in to revive her but it was too late. She was gone before anything could be done.

The body was left in the room for more than 24 hours, several prayer sessions were held to bring her back to life. In the more than 24 hrs period after her death, no doctor from EKO Hospital came out to say this was what happened. No personnel came around to ask people to leave the room, the body was not covered nor washed. It was simply business as usual for them.

It was normal for someone to give birth and die? The Medical Director of the hospital did not deem it fit to offer explanation or even try to prevail on the family to leave the body so that necessary medical procedures could be done.

I will leave my readers to ask questions from this write up, perhaps, I am being too expectant, maybe too optimistic about my expectations from a Hospital as reputable as EKO Hospital!

The family has accepted their fate and decided to move on…. But should we move on? Should we just accept this as normal? I was talking to a friend in my office yesterday and was shocked when he informed me that his wife also died in this same EKO Hospital some 6 years back and the same treatment was meted out on him!

Please pass this story around, let people know what is going on, don’t stop until it gets to the right quarters where something could be done to save others and get doctors and hospitals to be more responsive to their duties of saving lives and not taking lives. Dolapo is gone but who knows who will be next??

I DON'T KNOW IF YOU WANNA DENT THE IMAGE OF THE HOSPITAL AND ITS STAFF WITH THIS PIECE, I CANNOT IMAGINE WHAT YOU'LL GAIN FROM IT EVEN.

BUT AS FAKE AS ONE MIGHT THINK IT IS WE'VE ALL COME ACROSS CERTAIN STORIES AND DIFFERENT INSTANCES. .ESPECIALLY IN NIGERIA.

NOBODY CARE ABOUT ANYBODY.
NOBODY CARE IF THE NEXT PERSON NEEDS HELP.
WE TAKE OUR OWN LIVES AS GOLD AND TAKE THAT OF OUR FELLOW HUMANS FOR GRANTED.
AND YET WE IN THIS COUNTRY POSE TO BE HIGHLY RELIGIOUS. . MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS EVERYWHERE.


YOU'RE NOT LIVING RIGHT IF YOU LIVE LIFE WITHOUT CONSIDERING OTHER PEOPLE, AND HAVING THEM AND THEIR INTEREST IN MIND.
YOU CAN FAST AND PRAY ALL YOU WANT, IF YOU DO NOT SHOW HUMANITY AS A HUMAN, NO GOD OR DEITY WILL LISTEN TO YOU.

OP PLEASE BEAR THE LOSS AND LEARN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE.

THANKS FOR SHARING.

RIP to d dead....

Seriously something needs to b done urgently concerning our medical staff, their non-challant attitude is way way out of this world..

RIP Delano. May those who are registered with the hospital begin to look elsewhere. How can a hospital not have any doctor on ground? Have they grown to a level where loss of life is normal?

I use a small hospital where care is available upon arrival. Please do the same if u care for yourself and loved ones.

I have heard nothing but bad news about this hospital. I hope something is done soon. I have always felt that patients in Nigeria tend to trust medical personell blindly. They are not God. They are also susceptible to mistakes and the foibles of being human, so please always ask questions.

What is wrong? What is the treatment plan? Why does he/she feel this way? What's the prognosis?

Above all, if you feel you are not getting adequate care, please go to another hospital.

R.I.P to Dolapo. May God comfort her loved ones.

What I usually advice pregnant mothers; go to small hospitals and health centres; where you'll have doctors and nurses very much closer to you, ith better care; the bigger hospitals are for complicated cases; when referrals re made...
Very big hospitals will have little care or time for you, because of the mammoth crowed they tend to attend to. I kno this cus I'v experienced it 1st hand... Have a blessed day

She was buried this afternoon in Ijebu.
Wish these hospitals could show some better organization in their activities for the good of all.

This is a pure case of negligence. They need to be exposed. If ure pregnant and need adequate care go to a good private hospital with a good consultant gynacologist dt wil gve u d adequate care u need. al dis big hospitals re jst name n past glory dey don't care for human life afteral at d end of d month deir money wil b paid. But dt one man wil try to gve his best in order to get more referals. May her soul rest in d bosom of d lord. Amen.

Pathetic! May her soul rest in peace. Not an attempt to defend anybody, i feel she might have developed DVT, a relatively uncommon complication in pregnancy which was responsible for the leg pains, thrombus could have been dislodged which resulted in chest pain and sudden death from ? pulmonary embolism. This is just my own theory from what i gathered from your history. A postmortem would have bailed us out...but she has been buried! I strongly believe it was an avoidable loss.May her soul rest in peace!

Such uncaring hospital staffs can get a healthy person killed or even given you heart attack.

Why do people think that Private Hospitals perform better than Government Hospitals. For clarification purposes, Eko Hospital is a Private Hospital with hospitals at Surulere and Ikeja in Lagos.

I will always advice any mid or low income woman who is pregnant to go General/Specialist Health center. The beauty in there is that they have team of doctors ( different specialization and level of experience) and some consultants unlike the most Private hospitals which residents only one or two GPs and seeks the services of Consultant periodically.

If you are in Lagos, Gbagada General Hospital is recommended, Sometimes the attitude of the Nurses or attendants might be displeasing but what you need is better healthcare and sound child delivery.