bjjbam:
I am not surprised. This is a country where nothing works and everything goes. And now no more respect for the dead. What am I saying dem don even respect the living?

INTROVERT:

*Morgue overflows with dead bodies
*Patients sleep with rats in the sickbay – Chief
Karetimi, Chair, Bomadi LG
*We’ll investigate—Dr. Nicholas Azinge, Commissioner
for Health


BOMADI— MORTUARY attendants at the 44-year-old
Bomadi General Hospital, Bomadi in Bomadi Local
Government Area, Delta State, stack corpses on
improvised wooden platforms after embalmment and
bizarrely abandon them to the vagaries of the weather,
day and night.
The eyesore, according to our investigations, is due to
lack of space to preserve the dead bodies in the
hospital’s overflowing mortuary.
Meanwhile, patients have expressed disgust at the
dilapidated condition of the health-care facility plagued
by rats and mosquitoes, which has heightened the fear
of Lassa fever and Zika virus in the riverside
community.
When Niger Delta Voice visited the morgue, our
reporters saw embalmed corpses covered with blankets
deserted.
Efforts to speak with some of the doctors were futile,
as none of them agreed to comment on the situation.
Workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said
they were under pressure on daily basis because of the
challenges faced by patients.
They called on government to resuscitate the hospital,
which is the only government healthcare facility in the
area.

Rats struggle for bread with me—Lawyer
A lawyer and human rights activist, E.U Opukiri, whose
wife was on admission, narrated his experience: “I am
a barrister of nine years in the bar, I came to this
hospital because of the health of my wife and my
experiences here in these two days are pathetic. There
was no electricity and water in the hospital premises, a
state government hospital for that matter.
“In the night when the rechargeable lamp we were
using went off, rats came out in large numbers and
spread everywhere. Some of them came specifically for
the bread I bought for my wife, dragging it with me.
“Out of fear, I took the bread and made it a pillow at
the head-side of the bed. I was, however,
uncomfortable with it because of its shape and so I
decided to put it in a cupboard-like shelf there. When I
opened the shelf, I saw that it was a haven for rats.
There were so many rats that I became afraid being
aware of the prevalent Lassa fever caused by rats. We
could not sleep at night these two days we were
there,” he said.
Opukiri said: “Again, the hospital morgue too is an eye
sore; our revered and deceased parents are dried right
outside in the sun like Bonga fish, which is right there
(pointing to the morgue). Therefore, I want government
to intervene in this health facility immediately.
“As a matter of fact, I can categorically tell you that
there is no water in this hospital. All the water facilities
are dilapidated, which you can see for yourself. I had to
go out of the hospital’s premises in the night to the
riverside to fetch water for my wife.”
Leader of Bomadi Legislative Assembly, Hon Bekes
Tonprebofa, who was a patient in the hospital, last
year, complained bitterly about the state of the
facilities, appealed to the state government to do the
needful in the hospital.
Contacted on phone, Commissioner for Health, Delta
State, Dr. Nicholas Azinge, said he was not aware of
the development and promised to investigate the
matter.


Why they keep corpses outside—Karetimi
Chair, Bomadi Local Government Area, Chief Oluwole
Karetimi, who spoke to NDV, said the health facility
required complete renovation/rehabilitation, adding that
government has not upgraded it since its
commissioning in the early 1970s.
Karetimi asserted: “I appeal to the state government to
undertake complete renovation and upgrading of the
hospital. We are aware that patients sleep with rats
and mosquitoes during the night because of its state.
“The Lassa fever that we are talking about is a disease
carried by rats. Now that we cannot assist the state
government because of financial incapability, we
appeal to the Hospital Management Board, HMB, Asaba
and our amiable governor to quickly come to our aid.”
On the dead bodies kept outside the morgue, he said:
“Corpses are now placed outside the mortuary because
of space, which also needs upgrading.
The primary health-care centre too needs attention.
Again, if people keep their dead in the mortuary for
more than one, two years as reported, then, the
management of the hospital should formally write to
the families concerned and give mass burial to such
corpses if they refuse to take them.”


Not a good omen—Royal father
Traditional ruler of Kpakiama urban community, Chief
Ambakederemo Bunu, who expressed dismay that
corpses litter the outside of the mortuary, said it could
lead to outbreak of both air and water-borne diseases
and called on government to quickly intervene and save
lives of the rural dwellers.
He also noted that the presence of rats in a
government health-care facility at this time of Lassa
fever disease was not a good omen for the people.
Relocate mortuary – Community chair
On his part, chair, Bomadi community, Hon. Stephen
Muturu, said, “A situation whereby those on sick bed
always see corpses that are carried through the wards
to the mortuary is not palatable. Government should
shift and fence the mortuary and construct a road from
the fence at the backside to carry dead bodies.”
State intervention urgently needed- Councilor
Supervisory Councilor for Health, Hon. Lawrence T.
Timbor, in his reaction, observed that the general
hospital’s mortuary needed expansion because it was
too small for an area that is fast growing, as compared
to the time government built it.





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