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A man, Jeremiah Akinsetemi, has accused the management and medical practitioners at the Faith-Hills Specialist Hospital of negligence resulting in the death of his wife, Rachael, who got delivered of a baby at the hospital in the Egbeda area of Lagos State.
Punch Metro gathered that Akinsetemi, who works at a factory as a technical operator, returned home from work on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, and met his nine-month pregnant wife writhing in labour pain and rushed her to a nearby hospital.
Speaking with PUNCH Metro, Akinsetemi said while at the hospital, some medical practitioners assessed his wife’s condition and admitted her to facilitate the baby’s delivery.
He said, “I met the doctor who directed us to the gynaecologist. We also met with the hospital’s MD who asked us to do a scan and the result indicated that she was 40 weeks plus some days and she was placed on observation in the hospital.
“Later on, they said my wife’s cervix was not open yet and that it has to be open for her to give birth. To soften her cervix, they inserted something inside her but her cervix did not open.
“But the gynaecologist, while assessing her condition, did some calculations and said she was just 40 weeks and told us not to allow the hospital to put pressure on us to do a Cesarean section and that some women give birth two weeks before or after.”
The bereaved husband said things, however, took another turn when the Managing Director of the hospital, said there was a need for a surgical operation to be performed on his wife for the sake of the baby, adding that because of the gynaecologist’s advice, he left the hospital and took his wife to the Faith-Hills Specialist Hospital.
He said, “When we got there, they placed her on observation till the following day. In the morning, I returned home to do something when the MD of the hospital called to inform me that they would need to operate on my wife because her cervix was not opening despite being in labour.
“I discussed it with my wife, told her they are professionals and that since her cervix was not opening and she is feeling pains that deprived her of sleeping, I needed to sign the papers. I signed the papers and in less than 10 minutes, she delivered by herself without the surgery.
“I met them cleaning up the baby and also observed that my wife was bleeding and they were transfusing a pint of blood into her. But as I saw the rate at which the blood was flowing into my wife, I asked the nurse if that was the only pint of blood the hospital had and she said yes.”
Akinsetemi said the medical practitioners told her that they already called the blood bank for more blood, adding that when they could not get any blood, he informed his neighbour, Rolint Ugele, who is a universal donor and he agreed to donate blood for his wife.
He said, “But the hospital doesn’t have what they can use to collect the blood and screen it. Later on, they said the bleeding had stopped and that my wife was fine. I started informing people that she had given birth but suddenly, I saw the doctor and nurse rushing in and out and when I asked what happened again, they said the blood was gushing out again.
“The pint of blood they were giving her had finished and blood was rushing out. I complained and they said she would be fine and that they had called for an ambulance. When the ambulance came, we carried her into it as she was on oxygen. But before we got to Ayinke House in LASUTH, she stopped breathing.
“My wife gave birth around 10am, and after putting her corpse in the mortuary, I returned to the private hospital around 8pm for my newborn who was not given anything to eat other than the glucose.
I took my baby away but before I left, I said if my wife did not give birth herself, they planned to operate her with only a pint of blood and with no ambulance on the ground, what would happen if there was an emergency?”
The Managing Director of the Faith-Hills Specialist Hospital where Rachael delivered her baby, Dr Lilian Obianuju, while reacting to the development, said Rachael presented at the hospital with a reduction in fetal movement, adding that despite informing her and her husband that a Caesarean Section was needed to be performed to bring out the baby and save her life, the couple declined and left the hospital on February 10.
She said, “They requested for discharge and we told them the implication of their action and she was discharged and we still gave her a one-week appointment to return for a follow-up but they never showed up until after eight weeks with a history of labour pain.
“When they returned, I was around that night and I told the husband that his wife needed to have an emergency CS done that night but he refused and told me that the hospital they came from gave them an option of CS and that he tore the consent form and brought the woman back here.
“He left that night, and in the morning, around 6am, we did a scan and the person that did the scan said the baby was not doing well. I had to call her husband to come and carry the wife if he would not consent to the CS. I have my evidence and in the process of trying to prepare for the CS, the woman delivered and whatever that happened from where she was coming from, I do not know and it is only the husband that can answer that.
“When the woman delivered, her blood was not clotting and I don’t know what they had done where she was coming from and we had to get blood urgently to transfuse her, placed her on oxygen and referred her to LASUTH and that was what happened.”
