The father of a 300-level student of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) has petitioned the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Akure (UNIMEDTH) after his son died at the hospital due to the alleged negligence of a consultant doctor at the Ondo State government-owned institution.

The father, Prince Bola Adebobola, alleged that the consultant doctor, Dr (Mrs) Alabi, repeatedly refused to attend to his son, Goodness Adedotun Adebobola, after he had been assigned to her care upon the boy’s admission at UNIMEDTH for an ailment, leading to his death.

In the petition, addressed to the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr Adesina Akintan, and copied to the state Commissioner for Health and the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Adebobola is demanding justice.

Akintan told Sunday Vanguard, last week, that UNIMEDTH Management had launched a probe into the death.

“I am very pained, heartbroken and saddened to report to your Management the negligence of one of your consultant doctors, Dr (Mrs) Alabi of Haematology Department, in treating my son, Adebobola Goodness Adedotun, a 300-level Computer Science student of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, which, invariably, led to his untimely and unjust death”, the dad wrote in the petition dated August 22, 2024.

According to him, the boy was admitted into A & E Ward of UNIMEDTH on August 3, 2024 and died August 11, 2024.

Narrating the events leading to the death of Adedotun, the father narrated: “My son was admitted into the UNIMED Teaching Hospital on the 3rd of August, 2024 for malaria and body pain (he was an HBSS) and was assigned to Dr (Mrs) Alabi as her patient.

“My son was given Bed 14 at the A& E Ward.

“While my son was on sick bed, the doctor on duty directed his mother to look for a certain Dr (Mrs)

Alabi as she was the one to attend to him.

“On getting to her office, somebody gave my wife Dr (Mrs) Alabi’s number. “Whilst she called her, she was informed that Dr (Mrs) Alabi had been repeatedly informed that she had a patient at the ward. “To our surprise, Dr (Mrs) Alabi refused to show up for three (3) days in spite of repeated calls by the patient’s mother and the failure and refusal of Dr (Mrs) Alabi to come to attend to my son made the patient’s mother to seek further inquiry as to whom could be of assistance since younger doctors were afraid to attend to my son because he had been assigned to a senior doctor; in fact while my wife was still in a sad mood, she was told that one Professor (Dr) Osho would be coming from UNIMED, Ondo to see his patient at the ward.

“From there, my wife made a contact with him and when Professor (Dr) Osho came and he saw my son, he explained that he was not his patient and that my son had been assigned to a particular consultant in person of Dr (Mrs) Alabi who refused to show up, but due to the situation, Professor (Dr) Osho had compassion on him and examined my son and then prescribed drugs based on the laboratory results conducted at UNIMED Laboratory.

“Professor (Dr) Osho also suggested that he should be transfused because my son’s blood PCV was 18% but his mother declined and promised to build it up.

“Meanwhile, my son’s average stable blood PCV was usually 18% whenever he complained of malaria.

“Also, he had never been transfused since he had been given birth to (noted in the patient’s case file).

“Yet, Dr (Mrs) Alabi, who was the assigned consultant to my son, still hadn’t shown up”.

Fourth day

Adebobola further narrated that, on the fourth day of the boy’s admission, Alabi later came around and asked to discontinue the drugs prescribed by Professor (Dr) Osho “which had been helping my son to recuperate”.

According to him, Alabi now prescribed other drugs, including very strong antibiotics, without any blood replacement drugs and insisted on transfusing my boy. “Based on the insistence of Dr (Mrs) Alabi on blood transfusion, my wife procured screened blood with all the necessary tests carried out from the UNIMED Blood Bank (recorded at the lab).

“While giving the first pint, there was a strong reaction to the blood by my son, then it was stopped, later another blood was given but, this time around, my son’s body tolerated it. “During the period of transfusion, Dr (Mrs) Alabi was nowhere to be found in spite of repeated calls from the boy’s mother.

“On the following day of the blood transfusion when Dr (Mrs) Alabi was to come around to review the patient’s situation and to complete the second round of transfusion, she only directed two (2) ladies, whom we found out that were working in her office, to transfuse my son. “But the ladies refused to do it because I personally requested that the blood should not be transfused without having on ground a drug to counter negative reaction of blood transfusion in case it occurs again like the first time, but this annoyed the ladies and they went away angrily saying that, after all, they were not UNIMED medical staff.

“Still, Dr (Mrs) Alabi refused to show up.

CMD accidentally shows up

“Fortunately, few minutes after this situation, a senior consultant was passing by in the ward and he saw a known woman who happened to be my wife’s friend. “The man now asked her for her purpose of being in the ward and she told him about the blood transfusion but didn’t explain to him about what had initially happened.

“Immediately, the consultant doctor instructed one of the two younger doctors who were following him to do the needful for us and the younger doctor complied. “It was later on that day we knew that the consultant was Dr Akintan, the CMD of UNIMED Teaching Hospital, Akure.

“Upon all these happenings, when it was Saturday, my wife called Dr (Mrs) Alabi to come to the hospital in order to review my son’s case, only to be told, after several calls, that she should come and pick her at her house.

“Immediately, my wife called me to go to Dr (Mrs) Alabi to pick her up from her house, without wasting any time, as my son’s life was on the line.

“I hired a car (Bolt) to go to her house, following the description that Dr (Mrs) Alabi gave me. “On getting to her house with a Bolt vehicle hired, Dr (Mrs) Alabi made me wait for almost two (2) hours without following me to the hospital but later came in company of her husband. “While at the hospital on this day, Dr (Mrs) Alabi requested that we should do chest x ray, and we did it and nothing was found in the chest of my son to suggest any bad sign of health.

“She also stated that my son should again be transfused, one (1) pint a day for three (3) days”.

Laboratory test

The dad alleged that before Alabi left on that day, she stated that she would need to take the samples of Adedotun’s blood to a special laboratory where she could carry out all the required tests by herself and also at a laboratory where she firmly believed in their results “unlike the results of tests from UNIMED Hospital Laboratory where she strongly doubted the competency and validity of their test results”.

“Meanwhile we had done all the tests previously at the UNIMED Laboratory including blood screening. (Records are available at the UNIMED Laboratory)” Adebobola said.

And Dr( Mrs) Alabi left the hospital with my son’s blood samples.

Ugly situations

He claimed that on the 8th day of his son’s admission at UNIMEDTH, two ugly situations arose at A&E Ward.

“From midnight immediately the solar light went off, and the ward was in total darkness while generator set was not put on and the national grid light was not restored”, the dad said.

“The doctor and nurses on duty in the night had to rely on phone flash light to administer drugs on my son and locate veins and, secondly, there was no more oxygen in the whole UNIMED Teaching Hospital that my boy could use to assist in breathing.

“When morning broke, my wife called Dr (Mrs) Alabi in order to explain about the situation of the night to her, she refused to listen to her. “In fact, I personally called her to explain to her that there was no more oxygen at the hospital and that my son, according to her prescription, would still need to be transfused that morning and that he wouldn’t be able to have it unless there was oxygen to assist his breathing while on transfusion.

Instead of Dr ( Mrs) Alabi to come to the hospital she was bluntly demanding for payment of tests she claimed she carried out without showing and discussing the results with us the parents who would pay her. In order to safe the life of my son I then told her to come to the hospital to collect the money.

“I told her to come to the hospital to receive it and examine my boy. “Having waited for about 2 – 3 hours without seeing Dr (Mrs) Alabi, we now discussed with the younger doctor on duty on what to do due to lack of oxygen at the hospital.

Search for oxygen

“We confirmed that we could be assisted at the Mother and Child Hospital Akure, and we decided to go there with a referral letter (see attached) in the UNIMED Hospital ambulance with a UNIMED nurse.

“On getting, there my son was promptly attended to; he was given oxygen and got transfused (see the attached). “We later brought back my son to the UNIMED Hospital ward in UNIMED ambulance, yet Dr (Mrs) Alabi refused to show up to review my son’s situation. “By Sunday evening, around 6:00pm, I called Dr (Mrs) Alabi again as an assigned consultant to my son, but she bluntly refused to come, instead she insulted me. “Later that evening, my son died”.

Oath

The dad said Alabi consistently violated the Hippocratic Oath she took as a medical doctor in her treatment of his son. “Her conduct demonstrated utter lack of compassion and empathy in the way she treated our son while under her care and even in the way she treated us after our son’s death”, he lamented.

Demands

Adebobola demanded investigation of Alabi’s conduct from the time his son was admitted to the hospital and assigned to her to the time he finally breathed his last. “It is also important in drawing attention of the government to the gross deficit in our hospitals especially in the critical areas of providing oxygen and other life support facilities with a view to improving the health care delivery in government hospitals”, he wrote in the petition.

“Needless to say the way my requests herein are addressed will determine my next line action because I had already briefed my solicitors on the matter and they would not hesitate to perfect my brief should the occasion arise”.

Inquiry

Contacted, Akintan, UNIMEDTH CMD, confirmed the receipt of the Adebobola petition. He told Sunday Vanguard on Thursday: “Yes. I am aware of the petition against one of our doctors. “We have set up a panel to investigate the incident. “The doctor is presently on leave, but she has been recalled to come and face the panel.

And that the report of the investigation will be made public. (Sunday Vanguard)

Update news