How doctors, nurses killed my mother, alleged Benin based lawyer

Francis Ogbuagu, Benin City

A Benin based legal practitioner, Anderson Asemota, has accused doctors and nurses of Edo Specialist Hospital, Benin City, of being responsible for the death of his 60 years old mother, Mrs. Joy Milton.

The lawyer alleged that the hospital, through sheer negligence, caused the death of his mom. He explained that one of the doctors, who were on duty that fateful day, removed the oxygen on his dying mother after an unsuccessful operation, just because of an argument he had with him over payment. The believed the removal of this oxygen at that crucial moment caused the death of his mom.

Asemota stated: “A doctor removed the oxygen of my   dying mother, over an argument concerning payments. He did this while the woman was dying, to the knowledge of the doctors. This was despite their neglect and failure to carry out dialysis procedure, which I had paid on two I separate occasions. The doctors resorted to extortion, giving different prescriptions, which were not applied to my mother. I had paid all my mother's bills, while the hospital officials suddenly manufactured a bill of N82,000:00, despite the fact that I had paid the sum of N90, 000.00 being  payment made for services not rendered. When I wanted to take my mother to another hospital, they shut the gate on us, rolled my mother outside the hospital compound and removed the oxygen with the same doctor saying, ‘If she wan die, make she die, na our money dey important.’ I reminded the doctor if my mom dies, it would be a clear case of murder. He replied, ‘forget that thing! In Nigeria, everybody is a fool including Obaseki and Buhari.’ I reached out to my association- the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), through the Chairman, Pius Oiwoh, who responded immediately. It was through his intervention I was able to get the phone contacts of the managers of the Health Sector in Edo State, but none of them picked my calls.”

Asemota said that his mom died at about 5am at Celltek Healthcare Medical Center. He said that before they got her to the hospital, she was almost dead following several cuts, which left her bleeding profusely.

Dr. Peter Evbuomwan, speaking on behalf of Edo Specialist Hospital, Benin City, said he was informed about the case on Saturday night by the nurse at the Accident and Emergency section. The nurse told him that a patient was supposed to be referred, but that doctors had left because the said patient’s relative had physically assaulted one of the doctors on duty. Evbuomwan had quickly moved to the hospital, where he over a one of the relatives of Asemota speaking on phone and telling someone, that the machine didn’t work because of the negligence of the staff.

Evbuomwan said: “I quickly corrected him, that medical staff shouldn’t be held responsible for the failure of a machine. The relative rained curses on me and then attempted to physically assault me, but was held back by his brothers and security guards on duty. During this, one of the attending doctors stepped in and started writing the referral note, while letting me know what had happened previously. I kept saying what happened was very wrong and should not be allowed to escalate. At that point, the said relative said I didn’t know who he was. He threatened to call many people on me and called me stupid. I ignored him and kept talking to the doctor.”