Tragedy! ‘Doctors Negligence’, Man Loses Two Kids In Six Months

Mr Frank Ogundana has lost two kids in just six months due to what he described as ‘doctors’ negligence’.

His eight-year-old daughter, Donna, who was admitted at the General Hospital Ikorodu on Monday April 8, died last Thursday under questionable circumstances morbidly reminiscent of the death of his only son at the same hospital about six months ago. The grieving man has therefore called on the Lagos State Government to check “the excesses of doctors at the Ikorodu General Hospital” as he alleged that no fewer than 20 couples in his community may have lost their children in similar questionable circumstances at this tertiary health institution.

Donna, a primary four pupil of Lagos State Polytechnic Staff School was diagnosed at birth as being afflicted with Sickle Cell anemia. But a later test was to confirm that she was AA. Indeed she was never admitted in any hospital until her predicament of April 8. According to Ogundana who lectures at the Lagos State Polytechnic, Donna had never been admitted or had blood transfusion since she was diagnosed to be AA in LUTH about five years ago. “I have four children, three girls and a son but my only son died at the Ikorodu General Hospital due to doctors’ negligence, that was six months ago. “My daughter had never been sick until 2012 when she complained of general body pains and under medical advice, we placed her on prescribed medication.

When we returned from church on Sunday, she complained of body pains and was given her medicines. But I realised she did not sleep throughout the night and we took her to General Hospital Ikorodu on Monday April 8 and she was placed on admission. “Some medical tests were carried out on her and her blood count was 29 per cent, while malaria parasite was negative. She was treated for malaria, pains and also given sedatives. But rather than get better, my daughter’s condition got worse as she complained of increasing pains.

“On Tuesday, she started crying frequently and her eye balls became yellow. Unfortunately, doctors were not available to attend to her. I walked up to a nurse to complain about the situation but she said the symptoms were normal. “On Wednesday, I could not bear it any longer as my daughter could not sleep for 24 hours; her heart was beating fast but the nurse on duty said they have increased the sedatives which means she would sleep for longer hours but this was not so.

“Frantic with worry I went round the hospital to see if a doctor could help out; I eventually came across the doctor who placed her on admission but he asked me to exercise patience. I left the hospital by 8pm while my wife stayed back so that I could attend to our two kids at home.

“By this time, I thought of transferring my daughter to another hospital but the doctors were not available to issue a report. The nurses said they had severally drawn the doctors’ attention to my daughter’s worsening condition without an appropriate response. “My wife told me that one of them, Dr. Abu, promised to show up but he never did. By 11pm, I drove to the hospital. As soon as I approached the gate, I heard my daughter screaming. I parked the car and started running to the children's ward. There were two doctors on duty, a male and a female, but the duo refused to show up in the ward.

“In annoyance, I followed the nurses to the doctors’ office and to my greatest surprise, one of them, a female, was sound asleep. After waiting for a while, I forced the door open; my action created a scene which forced the male doctor out of his office. But rather than addressing my problem, he accused me of peeping into a female doctor’s office which aggravated my annoyance and I dragged the female doctor to the ward.

“On noticing my daughter’s predicament and without carrying out any medical examination, she administered sedatives and told me not to worry; that was at midnight. “My daughter woke up around 6am of Thursday April 11 and she was very weak. By that time, her blood level had reduced drastically to eight per cent and my lovely daughter died in my arms. I am heart-broken; doctors in Ikorodu General Hospital have thrown me into mourning ,” Ogundana narrated.