RIP

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!