Recently, Nigerians were proud to celebrate Dr Olutoye, who trained at Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly University of Ife), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He is a specialist with expertise in fetal and neonatal surgery with specific interest in congenital diaphragmatichernia and complex wounds.

A Nigerian trained Dr working in Texas, USA, along with his partner, performed an incredible feat of delivering the same baby twice, thirteen weeks apart. He removed the baby from the mother’s womb at 23 weeks, performed surgery on her to remove a tumour, then replaced her in her mother’s womb and delivered her again, healthy at 36 weeks.

Most foreign countries one goes to, whether, UK, USA, UAE, to name a few, one finds that several top medical consultants in their hospitals are Nigerian. Same with nurses. A lot of them trained here.

The Child

Last week, the tragic death of a six year old child at a Victoria Island hospital, finally necessitated the writing of this piece. I have however, decided to omit the names of the parties involved in this sad case for reasons best known to me.

There have been allegations of medical negligence against the hospital by the Parents of the child, while the hospital maintains that they did all that was required of them in the treatment of the child.

I interviewed both the Parents of the child and doctors from the hospital. The Parents of the child (the Parents, the mother or the father) and the hospital confirmed to me that the child suffered from sickle cell anaemia. The hospital also went further to say that the child also suffered from asthma, as they put it, suffering from ‘two chronic illnesses’.

Here is a brief overview of what happened. I will try to be as accurate as possible. Kindly, forgive me if I have left out any pertinent details.

Day 1

The child did not eat breakfast in the morning. His father offered to feed him, but he refused. The child was obviously having some of his asthma issues. The child was insisting on going to school. The father refused, saying he could not go to school on an empty stomach. He decided there and then that instead of going to school, the child should see the family doctor. The family doctor happened to be away, abroad, but another doctor on duty at the clinic nebulised the child and administered an antibiotic injection, Rocephin. The family doctor’s clinic claims that the father was informed that the child should be put on admission at the hospital.

Nebulisation is the treatment of asthma and other respiratory related diseases by the administration of medication in form of a mist inhaled into the lungs through a machine. The doctor put a call through to the family doctor abroad, informing her that the child should be admitted to hospital, so as to be able to take the antibiotics intravenously.

The child went home, felt better, and even ate a hearty meal of rice and stew.

Day 2

It was not clear what happened to the child that day, but the father took him to the hospital late that night and into the next morning. The child was complaining of stomach ache.

Day 3

The father and child were in the hospital into the very early hours of the morning, say about 1 am. The child still had the stomach ache and the doctor on night duty (Young doctor) asked that the child should be admitted, but gave no viable reason why, according to the father. The father asked Young doctor if there was an immediate treatment plan, necessitating the child’s admission to the hospital at that time. The Young doctor offered him no viable explanation or treatment plan, so he left with his son, saying that they would return later that morning (I guess when the Consultants would have resumed duty).

Later that morning, as early as 7am, the father and child were back at the hospital, with the child still complaining of a stomach ache. On their return they still met Young Dr, who was getting ready to go off duty. Not too long after, two Consultants of the hospital, resumed. They took charge of the child’s case (Consultants 1 & 2). The child was placed on admission that morning.

In the meantime, the mother’s sister, a paediatrician practising in USA (Aunty Dr), had been contacted by the mother. The chats that were made available to me, that is, between Aunty Dr and the mother, were from very early in the morning of Day 3. Aunty Dr suspected that the child may have pneumonia, and acute chest syndrome, which was not unusual in a child with sickle cell. Aunty Dr felt that the pneumonia should have been evident from a physical examination. She also recommended that an ultrasound of the child and respiratory etiology should be carried out.

The Parents claimed that Aunty Dr’s suggestions did not go down well with Consultant 2, who seemed to feel offended about being told what to do by another doctor. The father informed me that it was several hours after Aunty Dr’s suggestion, which in tears, he passed on to Consultant 1, that the child was finally given a chest x-ray which confirmed Aunty Dr’s fears, that indeed, he had pneumonia, with the left lung being in a worse condition than the other.

Consultant 1 directed that the child should be nebulised every four hours. Aunty Dr told the mother that she was unclear as to the reason for nebulisation. She was more concerned about the pneumonia being treated.The child was still having terrible stomach pains. Another antibiotic, crystalline penicillin was added to the Rocephin.

The father said that he noted that the medication being given to the child may have been inadequate as his weight was 24kg and not 12kg, as noted in his chart. For children, medication is usually prescribed according to weight.

Day 4: The Final Day

Just before 3am, the mother told Aunty Dr that the child’s breathing was laboured, 95bpm with 150 heart rate and he was sweaty. Aunty Dr thought he had a fever, the mother said that he didn’t. She was asking the mother a lot of questions, was there a Consultant present, the antibiotics etc. She was still insisting on an ultrasound to check if the child had fluid in his lungs, how bad it was and so on, and that the antibiotic should be changed to levofloxacin. She was however, not sure whether that particular medication is even available in Nigeria (Apparently, levofloxacin is not generally used for children, because it can affect their growth).

At 4am Aunty Dr told the mother that fluids, antibiotics, pain control and possibly a blood transfusion were necessary, depending on the child’s haemoglobin level. Two minutes later, the mother told Aunty Dr that the hospital was about to give the child a blood transfusion. The child’s breathing dropped to 85bpm. This worried Aunty Dr who said it was crucial for a Consultant to be in the hospital to attend to the child. There was none. She told the mother that she wanted the child transferred to the ICU of another hospital, because she felt that

CONTINUE THE STORY HERE http://kleeqers.com/forum/health/2935-doctors-in-nigeria-healers-or-killers