HWNGOSSIPS: (TERRIBLE) King’s Care Hospital is presently engulfed in a credibility crisis after one Bankole Owolabi publicly accused medical officers there of abducting one of his twin child after birth. His wife, Mrs Mercy Owolabi, had months ago being scanned in the same hospital and given results showing she was expecting twins, but after a caesarean section in the same hospital penultimate Saturday, the doctors declared she gave birth to only a child and the placenta gotten from her body was allegedly thrown away without the couple’s consent. For Bankole Owolabi, a staff of ABUMET Construction Company, his joy knew no bounds when his wife, Mercy, told him last year that she was pregnant and they will be having another child to join the one in their family. He said the joy doubled tremendously when in the third month of his wife’s pregnancy, a scan was conducted and the result showed she was expecting a set of twins. According to the expectant father, the scanning was again conducted at King’s Care Hospital, Kubwa branch, Abuja when the pregnancy was seven months and it showed very clearly that the pregnancy contained twins, who were alive and active. The scan report seen by our reporters stated thus: "Live and active fetuses. One in footling presentation (i.e longitudinal lie) and the other in transverse lie; both have normal petal heart activity/ fetil tone (FHR: 160.27 bpm)…….; Imp: live and active (twins)". Based on the result, Mr Owolabi said he started preparing for his babies and went on shopping spree to purchase double babies items and clothes. "Everything I bought for the babies were double and because I don’t like disgrace, I borrowed N250,000 from my working place to buy more items, he said. He said while the preparation continued, his wife continued going to King’s Care Hospital for ante- natal, while blood test was conducted on her without any fault detected. The expectant father said he also registered his wife at General Hospital, Gwagwalada for the same ante-natal; where a HIV test was conducted on her and the result came out negative. He said at that hospital, they certified his wife and babies in her womb fine. Owolabi said on June 29, his wife called him in the night to announce she was feeling contraction signs and he took her to King’s Care Hospital, where his family was registered by his company under the National Health Insurance Scheme. He said immediately they entered the hospital, he was asked to donate blood but opted to pay N10,000 to the lab attendant in the hospital to buy blood. He said the doctor gave him a prescription note to buy some items outside the hospital’s premises, adding that one of the items was long surgical hand gloves. According to him, when he returned and didn’t find his wife on bed in the ward, he started shouting her name and she responded from the theatre where he rushed into. He said his wife told him they conducted another scan on her, were the scan operator and herself watched the twins inside her womb facing each other with their pictures taken. Owolabi said he then confronted the doctor to find out why she was in the theatre and was told that his wife’s pelvic is not open and she has to undergo caesarian section. "I responded by saying God forbid and told the doctor to allow her deliver normally. The doctor sent me out to buy another item and I returned to learn they had operated on my wife without my consent. "Where I made a mistake was after returning to meet my wife operated, the doctor said they couldn’t wait for me any longer since I left at 2 am and had to go on with the operation. They gave me a form to sign, which I did," Owolabi alleged. He said it took three hours before his wife was wheeled out of the theatre to a ward and he inquired for his babies but got no answer. "They placed my wife on drip and asked me to watch over her by holding her hands as well as alert nurses when the drip finishes. "While carrying out that assignment, my mother- in law came to the hospital and the doctor then sent me out again with another prescription note to buy another drug, which took me round Abuja city without me getting it,’ he stated. He said when he got back to the hospital, the doctor had dropped a baby girl with his mother in-law and when he inquired for his second baby, the doctor said his wife gave birth to only a child. According to him, that night, the doctors and nurses were persistently pestered by him and he never saw the particular doctor that operated on his wife (Dr Okoli) until it was a few days for her to be discharged. Owolabi said he inquired from the second doctor for his baby and placenta but got no answer. He told Weekly Trust that the hospital demanded and collected from him five polythene bags for the placenta to be kept and two new wrappers. He said the hospital’s matron accosted him and told him she wasn’t aware of the incident on time, adding that Abuja Environmental Protection Board had picked their dustbins and the placenta cannot be recovered. He also stated that the hospital’s cleaner denied seeing the placenta in the dustbin. He alleged that few days before his wife’s discharge, Dr Okoli, who operated on his wife had a conversation with his mother-in law about the baby’s feeding habit, since the doctors warned my wife not to give the child breast milk. "The doctor then asked my mother in-law that isn’t the second baby sucking and doing well. He told her to force the other baby to feed very well as she will later pick up," Owolabi further alleged. He said his mother-in law was now convinced of the existence of a second child after the doctor’s statement and she narrated what transpired to him and he called his pastor again to bear him witness. Owolabi said when his wife was discharged; he informed his union members at ABUMET Construction Company about his ordeal and reported the matter at Kubwa police station, where it was transferred to Kubwa Police Area Command. Several efforts made by our reporters to see Dr Okoli Ogu, the doctor who carried out the operation proved abortive as he was said not to be on duty by hospital staff. However the doctor reacted to the allegation publicly in a radio programme ‘Berekete’ that was aired last Thursday. The doctor, who appeared in the programme with Peter Atumi of Kings Care Hospital Kubwa, said an emergency caesarian section had to be carried out on the pregnant woman because of the condition of the baby in the womb and she gave birth to only a child. Dr Okoli said before the operation, Mercy Owolabi had confided in the hospital about a problem she had which was hidden to her husband. The doctors said based on the nature of the problem, the hospital decided to package and do away with the placenta. He denied the allegations levied against him by Owolabi. The doctor faulted the scanning results and said such results cannot be relied on totally. He said the Kubwa Police Area Command invited the medical officers who took part in the operation and they were granted bail over the incident. When confronted to respond to the doctor’s comment, Owolabi described it as a blatant lie. He said his wife all along was certified fit and even underwent medical tests at a government hospital. "Ok, assuming my wife is sick, what concerns illness with my second baby and placenta?" he wondered. At Kubwa Area Command’s police station on Monday, a police officer said the case is being investigated but on Wednesday, Barrister Maxwell Okpara, said during a radio programme on air that the case has being transferred from the area command to FCT Police Command, while petitions have also been sent over the issue to the Nigerian Medical Association. Also commenting on the issue, FCT Public Complaints Commissioner, Chief Obunike Ohaegbu, wondered why the hospital decided to connive with the woman to keep a secret from the husband, which led to throwing away the placenta. The commissioner assured that he will meet with the police commissioner over the issue so that experts can be engaged to investigate the issue. A medical expert, Dr. Charles O. Uzoefoh, consultant gynecologist in a private hospital in Abuja, while analysing the scan report of Mrs Mercy Owolabi, stated that the pregnancy was a multiple one. He said from the woman’s scan results shown to him by Weekly Trust, he would say the woman was rightly diagnosed and scanned correctly. "The scan shows that she is carrying twins and it clearly shows both skulls of the babies. The interpretation of the scans too was well done and clearly specified. So, it baffles me to learn that she was told that she was delivered of only one child and also told the scan was wrongly misdiagnosed," the doctor said. On the issue of burying the placenta, Dr. Charles said: "They have no right to bury the placenta without the consent of the couple. The placenta of the baby is normally given to the parent of the child to see. So, I would also question who gave them the right to bury the placenta even before the parents could see it. It is simple as well as common logic that they had to bury the placenta because the placenta determines if the pregnancy was single or multiple due to its weight and size." HWNVIEWS: Constant prescription of scarce medication to be bought is a trick used in luring significant others out from hospital premises, missing placenta highly questionable, scan done at point of delivery showing twin fetuses, mother not to breastfeed(is the wife HIV positive). There is something FISHY! Let adequate investigation be carried out on K.C.H. There are lot of malpractices going on right now in private and government healthcare facilities and its time the entire Populace should wake up and do the right thing (LITIGATION) __ SL8.IT for Blackberry
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 13:09:59 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015