Abuja ‘one chance’ victim brought in dead to hospital — Panel

The investigative panel on the death of the late Ms Greatness Olorunfemi, a victim of ‘one-chance operators’ in Abuja, said she was brought to the Maitama District Hospital, Abuja, dead.

The chairman of the panel, Dr Mohammed Mohammed, who is also the President, Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), revealed this on Wednesday in Abuja during a news conference on the outcome of the panel’s findings.

According to eyewitnesses, Olorunfemi died following an alleged refusal by Maitama District Hospital to treat her after being pushed out of a moving vehicle by ‘one-chance operators’ on Sept. 26.

Mohammed said that the panel, which was set up on Oct. 5, concluded that she was brought in dead after investigating the events of the day.

He added that the panel got confirmation from the CCTV footage at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital and interviewed eyewitnesses and all parties involved in the issue.

“So, on whether she was brought to Maitama District Hospital alive, the casualty nurse and the house officer in the emergency attended and examined her.

“The casualty nurse first attended to her within 40 seconds of her arrival, and then there was also a doctor that was passing by who attended to her within three minutes.

“They all testified that she was brought in dead, as the casualty officer confirmed it and accordingly notified the good samaritan who brought her to the hospital.

“The house officer also examined the patient’s pulse, respiratory, and pupillary reflexes, which were all absent, signifying brain death at the time of arrival.”

The panel chairman also said that the pre-autopsy examination by the pathologist at the hospital and physical inspection of her corpse by the panel members did not find any conclusive evidence that Olorunfemi was alive at the time of her presentation at the hospital.

He added that “on whether she bled to death while waiting at Maitama District Hospital, the pre-autopsies conducted, physical inspection, and photographs of the corpse revealed signs of strangulation with a head injury and a little stain on her cream-coloured cloth.

“Her cream-coloured cloth would have been drenched in blood if she was actively bleeding or if she bled to death.

“The good samaritan driver who conveyed her testified that he only saw a little stain of blood on his vehicle after she was removed and transferred to the mortuary.”

On the issue of a request for a medical report from the police, before she was attended to, there was no such thing, as revealed by the CCTV footage.

Mohammed said that the hospital CCTV footage showed that the medical team promptly examined her without first interacting with the people who brought her.

He added that “if there was such a request, she would not have been attended to promptly. When they came, they went straight to the body without interacting with the Good Samaritan, which they couldn’t have asked for a police report.”

Mohammed, however, said that the panel observed that the hospital staff, upon confirming that she was brought in dead, delayed in removing her corpse from the car.

This, he said, could be attributed to a shortage in manpower at the morgue and systemic inadequacy in care for the dead.

The report, therefore, recommended the need to sensitise the public about the National Health Act 2014 and the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshots Act of 2017.

According to Mohammed, the act did not say that gunshot victims should not be attended to in the hospital but that the police should be notified after the victim has been treated.

He said that the report also recommended that police outposts be stationed in major hospitals to forestall future occurrences of such.

Also, an autopsy will be conducted to ascertain the exact cause of death to aid investigation.

The Mandate Secretary, Health Services and Environment, Dr Adedolapo Fasawe, said that the death was avoidable and that the FCT Administration was looking into all the inefficiencies in its system to find lasting solutions to them.

She also said that, in line with the panel’s recommendation to have police outposts in hospitals, the department was already working towards it.

She added that the department was making provision for more stretchers and expansion of mortuaries.

Fasawe apologised to the Olorunfemi family over the way her corpse was treated, adding that “a human corpse is supposed to be treated with respect.”

She, however, assured that going forward, such an occurrence would not be repeated in FCT hospitals.

The 10-member panel was made up of delegates from the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), the Association of Pathologists of Nigeria (ASSOPON), and the President, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM).

Others are the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN), FCTA, members of the Health Services and Environment Secretariat, and the National Youth Council of Nigeria.