Man blames wife’s death on colleagues’ negligence

Affiong and Uwemben

An official of the Nigeria Immigration Service in Cross River State, Mr. Uwemben Inyang, has said his wife, Affiong, died because of the negligence of her professional  colleagues who ignored her at the point of death.

Affiong, who was a Chief Matron at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, died on February 11, 2013, after attempts to bring her blood pressure under control failed.

In his farewell during the burial of his late wife, Inyang alleged that Affiong’s professional colleagues slept off and did not give a helping hand to a female doctor who was attending to the deceased.

However, Chief Medical Director of UCTH, Dr. Thomas Agan, on Friday told PUNCH Metro that the teaching hospital had concluded arrangement to take Uwemben to court.

Agan said, “We are going to court. We did everything we needed to do, but since he thought otherwise, so be it. We are the ones dragging him before the court for malicious defamation and we are very angry over the matter.”

Uwemben accused the teaching hospital of gross negligence. He said his wife’s corpse was seized for 61 days before it was released to him for burial.

He said, “The medical report I picked immediately I was informed of her death showed neglect and a lot of gross incompetence.

“The doctor certified that my wife died at 2.30am; whereas the same folder said she stopped breathing by 2.35am. I still recall that she complained of severe headache by 2.42am. She was taken to the UCTH with blood pressure reading of 180/90mm, in a few minutes of medical administration, it dropped to 160/90mm.

“The medical team of nurses intended for her care had abandoned her to her peril without attention whilst the drugs administered had reduced her BP to 100/60mm beyond redemption.

“The most painful of it is that even her professional colleagues refused to heed. They went into a room to sleep and refused to give assistance to a female doctor who was attending to her.

“They tried to conceal the medical folder in order to hide their wickedness, claiming she had no known relatives.”

The widower alleged that he was humiliated and forced to write a letter of apology to the hospital before his wife’s corpse was released to him for burial.

PUNCH