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 encouragement. 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??

Hnmmmmm

MoSt likely Deep Venous Thrombosis.


It is not the fault of the hospital.
If u shut down the hospital, more people will die. If its open, less people will die.

So sorry to hear about it.
May her sould RIP.

yomi007k:
MoSt likely Deep Venous Thrombosis.


It is not the fault of the hospital.
If u shut down the hospital, more people will die. If its open, less people will die.

So sorry to hear about it.
May her sould RIP.

I beg to disagree! It is the fault of the hospital!
So nobody examined the woman all the while she was in the hospital?
The woman was in labour and on a chair for hours in Eko hospital.. Nobody noticed she was contracting until the baby was expelled.. the leg pain she was feeling could have been contractions...
I doubt it is DVT, but it is criminal for a big and expensive hospital like Eko to miss a diagnosis of DVT...
The family should sue Eko Hospital..

Coldplay007:

I beg to disagree! It is the fault of the hospital!
So nobody examined the woman all the while she was in the hospital?
The woman was in labour and on a chair for hours in Eko hospital.. Nobody noticed she was contracting until the baby was expelled.. the leg pain she was feeling could have been contractions...
I doubt it is DVT, but it is criminal for a big and expensive hospital like Eko to miss a diagnosis of DVT...
The family should sue Eko Hospital..

Ok ma.
But if its not DVT wat cud it be?

I understand there have been many of such deaths at Eko Hospital. Can someone please confirm this? If so, the Ministry of Health should investigate this.

yomi007k:

Ok ma.
But if its not DVT wat cud it be?

Could be amniotic fluid embolism.

@OP, it's sad to hear your loss. While I don't know the details surrounding the incident, I have to say that healthcare delivery in Nigeria is very not patient centered. Healthcare workers just do as they please, knowing fully well that they will get away with it. The doctor is boss. Nurse too will be flexing muscle. Shame.

annoymous:

Could be amniotic fluid embolism.

@OP, it's sad to hear your loss. While I don't know the details surrounding the incident, I have to say that healthcare delivery in Nigeria is very not patient centered. Healthcare workers just do as they please, knowing fully well that they will get away with it. The doctor is boss. Nurse too will be flexing muscle. Shame.

I agree with you.. Could be anything from amniotic fluid embolism to a ruptured uterus, nobody examined her....
Our Judiciary system is horrible, not just the healthcare system..

Sorry.


Eko hospital God is watching you in 5000 inches plasma.....

annoymous:

Could be amniotic fluid embolism.

@OP, it's sad to hear your loss. While I don't know the details surrounding the incident, I have to say that healthcare delivery in Nigeria is very not patient centered. Healthcare workers just do as they please, knowing fully well that they will get away with it. The doctor is boss. Nurse too will be flexing muscle. Shame.

It cud be.
But wit a past history of leg pains in background pregnancy- DVT is more likely.
Occurence is 5 times more in pregnancy.

yomi007k:


It cud be.
But wit a past history of leg pains in background pregnancy- DVT is more likely.
Occurence is 5 times more in pregnancy.

It could be! It is one of the first differentials with the info we have so far...
I said I don't believe it's DVT because the info about leg pain is coming from a non medical point of view and leg pain could mean anything from joint pain to even contractions..
I am more furious about the fact that a 8 month (33- 36 weeks) pregnant woman was in Eko hospital for close to 24hrs and nobody noticed she was in labour...
If Eko hospital could add to Nigeria's burden of Maternal mortality, what is the hope of our rural area?

Coldplay007:



It could be! It is one of the first differentials with the info we have so far...
I said I don't believe it's DVT because the info about leg pain is coming from a non medical point of view and leg pain could mean anything from joint pain to even contractions..
I am more furious about the fact that a 8 month (33- 36 weeks) pregnant woman was in Eko hospital for close to 24hrs and nobody noticed she was in labour...
If Eko hospital could add to Nigeria's burden of Maternal mortality, what is the hope of our rural area?

Hmmm

I don't mean to offend anyone, all this so called hospitals in Nigeria are worthless. Have heard so many cases like this from so many people. The only way all this unnecessary deaths can stop is if people starts suing the hospitals. Nigeria must turn to a litigious society for maltreatment by medical centres to stop. No wonder the Nigerian elites travel abroad for their medical needs. Start suing for malpractice .