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My Son Would’ve Been Alive If I Had Taken Himaway From LUTH By Force – Mother - Health - Nairaland

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My Son Would’ve Been Alive If I Had Taken Himaway From LUTH By Force – Mother by Nobody: 8:44pm On Aug 02, 2014
Slowly adjusting herself into one of the sofas in the
tiny living room that breezy Wednesday morning,
Alhaja Rafiat Yakubu, could barely utter a word.
With eyes still swollen from days of crying and
body too weak to swing around, it was indeed a
very difficult period for the mother of five. Since
losing her 30-year-old son, Yusuf, an
undergraduate of Psychology at the University of
Lagos, to cancer on July 22 this year, her world
has suddenly taken a different twist. The painful
demise of Yusuf leaves a big hole in her heart.
“My son didn’t deserve to die this way,” she cried,
while a handful of women who had thronged the
family home at Lawanson, a sprawling suburb
within the Lagos metropolis, made spirited efforts
at consoling her. “He was a lovable child,” she
continued. “He wanted the best for everyone
around him. He was the type of child any parent
would wish for.
“We started last year’s Ramadan fast together but
when it got to a stage, he said he couldn’t
continue anymore, that he was experiencing pains
in his throat. But three weeks later, he complained
of tooth and gum pain. After some time, we noticed
some wound inside his mouth. Immediately, he
started visiting the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital at Idi-Araba for a solution.”
But rather than getting a lasting answer to his
situation at LUTH, his visit to the medical facility
opened what would be a long and tortuous journey
on the sickbed. It is one step Alhaja says, flushed
her son’s entire dreams down the drain.
“Even though Yusuf had done series of tests, a
specialist he was directed to see at LUTH asked
him to do a particular one again at a diagnostic
centre at Surulere which costs N35, 000. When the
doctor saw the result, he said they were going to
cut somewhere in his nose and mouth which
would be tested in the laboratory. He was asked to
come back the following week for the result on
that. But by the time he went back, nothing had
been done. He was very sad and insisted that they
attended to him and give him the result.
“I was shocked to realise that he wasn’t given any
drug or analgesic even after something was cut off
from his nose and mouth. He told me he wasn’t
given any drug, I wondered why. When the result
was finally released to him, he was told he had
cancer. We couldn’t believe it,” she said.
The news came as a rude shock to the entire
family. The result was hard to accept. Cancer?
Where did it come from? It had never happened in
the family. But what could they do? Time was
running out. Yusuf’s condition was deteriorating.
They needed answers at all cost.
“The doctor assigned to him at LUTH, Dr.
Bamgboye, of the ENT section said he should do a
radiography test. He told us that their machine
was faulty and that we should either go to
University College Hospital, Ibadan or Eko Hospital.
That was in November last year. At Ibadan, we
were also told the machine was faulty. We finally
brought him to Eko Hospital even though it was
quite expensive.
“When we got there, we were first asked to pay
N40, 000 which we did. They however told us that
we had to come back and do it in January because
there were so many people on the queue who had
booked appointments ahead. We pleaded with one
of the workers there that he was a student and he
needed to be quickly attended to because of his
academics. The lady had pity on us and asked us
to bring him for the radiography the next day after
we paid another N120, 000.
“We were also told that he would need to do
chemotherapy for six weeks at the cost of N45,
000 per week. Sometimes it could be as much as
N50, 000. After the whole treatment, we were given
a note to take him back to LUTH, that they had
finished their own job on him. But by his next
clinic day, Yusuf could not stand or walk again.
“His sister went to complain to Dr. Bamgboye who
told her that he would only know what step to take
after seeing him. The following week, I took him
down to LUTH myself but was told on arrival that
the doctor was away in Abuja for a meeting. I
insisted that another doctor attend to him but the
nurses told us it was not possible and that it was
only Dr. Bamgboye who had been on his case that
could attend to him.
“We took him back to our private doctor and he
checked him again. At that point, he could not eat
anymore,” she said.
The days and weeks that followed were very
turbulent periods for the entire family. Alhaja had
to sell her car and other valuables to foot the bills
of Yusuf’s treatment which at that time was piling
by the minute. The sickness was sucking every
available penny without any significant
improvement in his health. It was at that point that
the idea of flying him abroad for treatment popped
up. Hope soon turned into determination. But just
when everything was falling in place, a hitch along
the line changed everything.
“We got a Saudi Arabia visa to fly him there for
treatment but by the time he got the visa, he could
not stand or walk again. The hospital in Saudi told
us to get some papers from Lagos. By the time the
papers came, his one month visa had expired. It
was at that point that his school mates from
UniLag stood up and began processing how we
could fly him to India for treatment.
“His colleagues collected my details and account
number and started drumming up financial support
through Facebook and other social media
platforms. People responded almost immediately
by paying money into the account. The same day
we took him to the Indian Embassy he was issued
two months visa.
“I then asked that he should be discharged from
LUTH because he was not getting proper attention
there but we were told that it wasn’t easy to be
discharged from the hospital, that in fact it was
easier to be admitted than to be discharged at
LUTH.
“Well, I and his siblings decided that we exercise a
little more patience so that he could be discharged
at LUTH before taking him to India. But that was
our greatest mistake. If I had known, I would have
insisted that he should be discharged by all
means. Maybe if I did that, my son would have
been alive today.
“Several times I would call the doctors and they
would tell me they were coming to attend to him
but all turned out to be lies. We never saw Dr.
Bamgboye again till the boy died. Another doctor
who spared time to check him at intervals told us
that Bamgboye was no longer at the ENT and that
he had become a consultant. But nobody bothered
to explain this to us. My son passed through
pains. He could have been alive if we had taken
him away from LUTH early enough,” the grieving
mother told our correspondent in the course of the
week.
Laying on another couch at a corner of the living
room, Olayinka, Yusuf’s immediate elder sister,
could hardly speak, too. Like her mother, she is
yet to get over the shock his demise threw the
entire family into. She told our correspondent
Yusuf could have survived his battle with cancer
had the doctors at LUTH lived up to their
responsibilities of keeping him alive to make the
14, 146 kilometre trip to India.
“Yusuf lost his speech since March this year.
Anything he wanted to say, he typed on his phone
because he could not talk again. That was the only
way he communicated his feelings,” Olayinka
explained. “After the radiography test, he could not
also eat anything again. The only thing he could
take was pap, tea and anything liquid. He couldn’t
walk again; crawling was his only means of
moving around the house. His situation became
that bad.
“After being admitted at LUTH for close to one
month, the doctors told my mother that they
needed to do an operation for him so that food
could be passed directly into his stomach through
pipe. I was angry when I heard that because he
was managing to take liquid items through his
mouth and there was no point doing an operation
that would only allow the same liquid foods like
pap and the rest to be passed into his stomach. To
me, that did not make any sense because he was
able to take that occasionally.
“But the doctors who were going to do that
particular operation persuaded us that it was
important we allowed him to undergo that surgery.
That was on Sunday, June 29, two days before the
doctors’strike. They said they needed to do it
before the strike commenced and so we agreed
grudgingly.
“I asked them that if they did that operation on
that Sunday and the strike began the following
Tuesday, how was he going to be getting drugs
and all the other attention he needed. They said
we had no reason to worry, that nurses would
always be around to attend to him.
“But to our surprise, we didn’t see them again that
Sunday. On Monday they promised to come again,
we didn’t see them also. Already, the doctors had
instructed that Yusuf should not be fed again from
that Sunday. So, by Monday afternoon he sent me
a text that he was very hungry. I insisted that he
should be fed that day and in fact throughout that
day the doctors didn’t show up. The next day
which was Tuesday, they went on strike.
“I still have the receipt of the money we paid for
that operation that was never done. My mother
paid N22, 800 for that particular operation. He was
admitted on June 26 at LUTH and died on July
22,” she said.
Adeoba Michael is a bosom friend of the departed
Yusuf. Having shared many memorable times
together, he described some of his buddy’s last
moments on earth. He told our correspondent
there were times in the course of the battle that a
strong man like his departed friend was betrayed
by his own emotions.
“Yusuf had huge dreams. He wanted to bring
peace to Nigeria and care for the needy. Such was
his large and strong heart. But there was a day he
called me into his room and typed a message on
his phone for me to read. He said, “Michael, I
know you don’t really know how I feel, this is
cancer am battling with and if something is not
done fast to improve my condition, I could be
forced to take my own life.” That really struck me.
I almost cried because for a strong person like
Yusuf to say such words, it meant he was really
dying and I couldn’t do anything to help. I can
never forget those words,” he said.
Henry Okwudili, Yusuf’s classmate before the latter
deferred in 300 level to attend to his failing health,
led the campaign to restore hope to an almost
hopeless situation. Like Olayinka, Okwudili told
Saturday PUNCH that unprofessionalism on the
part of the doctors and nurses taking care of Yusuf
at LUTH led to his death.
“After our convocation, we decided to visit and see
how Yusuf was faring. When we got to the family
house, we realised he was actually brought home
to die because there was no money to take care of
his treatment. Yusuf was a very close friend.
“It was at that point that we kicked off the
campaign to raise funds and fly him to India for
treatment. We started by writing letters, we wrote
to the University of Lagos; we wrote to the
school’s health insurance scheme, to ASUU,
UniLag chapter and the Lagos State chapter as a
whole, including other Non-Governmental
Organisations.
“On the first day, we got a donation of N25, 000. It
was a long way from the N7m we needed for his
treatment. We did a simple statistics and realised
that if we could make the campaign go viral and
have just 7, 000 persons give N1, 000, our
mission would be complete.
“We put this up all over the social media so much
that even the BBC came down to verify the claim at
LUTH. They helped us in also mobilising support.
Even Twitter worked wonders for us. In two days,
we had over 6, 000 tweets on Yusuf’s case. Within
a week, we received over N2m in donations. Over
the next two weeks that followed, we had arrived at
N6m. The response was really encouraging.
“Since the doctors went on strike in Nigeria, we
established contact with one Apollo Hospital in
India so that we could fly him there for treatment.
We had everything he needed for the trip ready.
But the next news we heard was his death. He
died only few hours before his flight was
scheduled to leave for India. It was really
devastating.
“If we had a good health care system in this
country, Yusuf could have been alive today
because he would have been sustained till he
made that trip. For 20 days, nobody attended to
him at the hospital. Somebody who was having
nasopharyngeal cancer, who could hardly eat, you
abandon him for that long because you were on
strike? That is not fair by any means. There could
have been other means to keep him alive at least
until he was flown abroad. In my opinion, the strike
contributed to his death.”
But Public Relations Officer of LUTH, Hope
Nwokolo, disagreed with the assertion that
negligence on the part of any of their doctors
contributed to the victim’s death. She told our
correspondent that it was impossible for any
doctor at LUTH to deliberately ignore any patient
needing attention.
“I disagree that the person you are talking about
was not given proper attention. I mean how can a
trained doctor ignore a dying patient before him. If
the family has any grievance, they should write the
management and we shall take up the matter and
investigate thoroughly,” she said.
A promising young man cut in his prime by one of
the world’s deadliest killer diseases –
nasopharyngeal cancer – Yusuf had huge dreams
of changing the world around him for the better. A
high-flying student of psychology with a
cumulative grade point of above 3.5, he was a
shining star among family and friends.
Nasopharyngeal cancer is the most common
cancer originating in the uppermost region of the
throat, behind the nose where the nasal passages
and auditory tubes join the remainder of the upper
respiratory tract. According to the World Health
Organisation, the disease attacks children and
adults, differing significantly from other cancers of
the head and neck in its occurrence, causes,
clinical behaviour, and treatment. The WHO says
the ailment is most common in males and is
mostly caused by environmental and hereditary
factors.
http://www.punchng.com/feature/my-son-wouldve-been-alive-if-i-had-taken-him-away-from-luth-by-force-mother-of-cancer-patient-who-died-hours-before-medical-trip-abroad/
Re: My Son Would’ve Been Alive If I Had Taken Himaway From LUTH By Force – Mother by Nobody: 8:48pm On Aug 02, 2014
My question is 'when shall the succour for the masses ever come in this country?' I weep for my country.

1 Like

Re: My Son Would’ve Been Alive If I Had Taken Himaway From LUTH By Force – Mother by Nobody: 9:32pm On Aug 02, 2014
After readn ds post abt d deceasd studnt who died of an ailment that could hav bn treated, i felt so emotional cos it could b an¥ (though that wuldnt be ur portion neida mine). Bt sometime i think some doctors dont worth 2b workn at d hospitals to save cos some of dem dont real¥ have dat passion to save life as lng as dia salaries are paid.
I pray i will neva xprinc wot dat decead went 2ru.
Let God almaithy grant him peaceful stay in paradise! (IJN) amen
*tearsonmachicks*

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Re: My Son Would’ve Been Alive If I Had Taken Himaway From LUTH By Force – Mother by drered(m): 9:33pm On Aug 02, 2014
Wow. Heartbreaking.. This is just an example of what goes on every day in the health sector. The system is messed up and its not looking like its gonna get better soon.. Faulty equipments here and there, for you to even see a doctor in UCH the waiting time is about 6 hours. When you do see them they either don't have the machine to run tests and they sometimes make diagnosis based purely on symptoms. This is the trend in most hospitals and this is what I expect doctors to be agitating about, the dearth of equipments, the need for more/better structured hospitals, better funding! Mandatory Continuing Professional development, Raising competency level,carrying out ground breaking procedures, developing these procedures even not a silly power tussle over who should be god and who should be subject and covering each others asses about... Smh

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Re: My Son Would’ve Been Alive If I Had Taken Himaway From LUTH By Force – Mother by drered(m): 6:14pm On Aug 16, 2014
...
Re: My Son Would’ve Been Alive If I Had Taken Himaway From LUTH By Force – Mother by PrincessB1(f): 8:52pm On Aug 16, 2014
So sad
Re: My Son Would’ve Been Alive If I Had Taken Himaway From LUTH By Force – Mother by phantom(m): 9:31pm On Aug 16, 2014
people whipping up sentiments left right and center. i feel for the lady but she must have been told that nasopharyngeal carcinoma is one of the deadliest cancers and nothing much could be done except palliative treatment most especially when it has spread,which is most likely what had happened by the time the boy presented.

the strike didnt kill her son. cancer did!!!

so even if doctors were not on strike,that young man would still have passed on. the surgery if it had been performed wouldnt have cured him.
Re: My Son Would’ve Been Alive If I Had Taken Himaway From LUTH By Force – Mother by corisande: 9:49pm On Aug 16, 2014
cry
so sad

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