A 31-year-old nurse, Faith Obinna, has accused medical personnel of St. Raphael Divine Mercy Specialist Hospital, Ikorodu, Lagos State, of stealing her baby moments after delivery.
The distraught woman insisted that she delivered twins and that one of them was stolen in the labour room of the hospital, which had before now been fingered in the sale of the body parts of patients who died in the healthcare facility, before she could recover from anaesthesia.
According to THE EAGLE ONLINE, Obinna explained that anaesthesia was given to her before a Caesarean Section was carried out on her to bring out the twins.
She said the anaesthesia was given to her even after she had told doctors at the hospital she didn’t want it.
According to her, she had the CS on March 6, 2020 and recovered to see the doctor presenting her with a baby, while she was expecting twins.
She insisted that her second baby was stolen by the hospital.
She further explained that after registering at the hospital, she was asked to carry out three scans and each showed the two babies.
She said even the heart beats of the two babies were different and the laboratory technician showed her everything on the screen of the scan machine.
The scan also showed that one of the babies was a boy, but the sex of the other couldn’t be determined because its leg covered the sex organ.
Obinna said: “On the first day I registered at the hospital, one doctor Ade that attended to me asked me to go for scan.
“The scan showed twins.
“The pregnancy was then four months.
“The second scan was to determine the sex of the babies.
“One was a boy, but the technician couldn’t tell the sex of the other baby because its leg covered the organ part.
“I was later handed over to Doctor Uzoma, who took care of me until delivery.”
Obinna explained that in the process of subsequent ante-natal visits, Uzoma asked her to do another scan, which she did.
“The doctor said everything was fine,” she said, adding that before the delivery day, she did three scans and all showed the twins in different foetal positions.
She said: “On the day of the delivery, they tried to send my husband away, but he refused to go home.
“He went out to wait.
“After the operation, they called my husband and told him that it was only one baby inside my womb.
“Even though I was feeling groggy, I only heard the cries of one baby.
“I asked my husband, where is the other baby, the staff asked me to calm down.
“Four days later, my husband and I decided to raise the alarm.
“The Chief Medical Doctor of the hospital asked me to accept just one baby, I refused.”
After she was discharged, Obinna and her husband refused to pay the balance of their medical bills, unless the different scans were given to them.
She said: “When I was about to be discharged, I asked for my scan results, they refused to give them to me.
“Rather, they hid my file.
“When we wanted to leave, they locked the gate against us.”
When the couple was eventually allowed to go, they narrated the incident to friends and family members and returned to the hospital.
The hospital, which is owned by the Catholic Church, invited a Reverend Father and a Reverent Sister and senior doctors to mediate in the issue.
Obinna said: “We asked for the scan result.
“They said that if they released the results, they wouldn’t like to see it on social media that it could affect the medical doctor and the hospital could be shut down.
“He said that what happened was scan error.
“I told them it was impossible.
“I know that scan error could occur in sex, but not where twins detection is concerned.
“I saw the babies with my two eyes.
“I know they are with one of my babies.
“The Reverend asked us to have mercy.
“He promised to refund all money we had spent since I registered with the hospital.
“We refused.”
Doctor Uzoma, a consultant gynaecologist, who said that he took delivery of Obinna, along with six other doctors, said: “First of all, it’s not my hospital, it’s a Catholic Hospital.
“I’m a consultant gynaecologist with the hospital.
“Faith Obinna was my patient.
“I gave her my phone number; if I wanted to steal her baby, I wouldn’t have given her my number.
“The true situation of things is that in November 2019, I asked her to do a scan, which she did in the hospital, with one of our male staff.
“The scan showed two foetuses.”
Uzoma explained that in January, Obinna did another scan with a female staff, which showed a single foetus.
While the scan that showed one baby was being done, Uzoma said the male staff who did the first one that revealed two babies was invited to take a look.
The male staff said he saw two foetuses, while the female staff argued that it was one foetus.
Uzoma added: “The female staff asked him to write the report of the scan, which she signed without informing any of the doctors.
“Unfortunately, when Faith did the third scan, still by the male staff, two foetuses were confirmed.
“Clinically, Faith has a big belly.
“The hospital worked based on the scan report.
“We prepared for the delivery of two babies.
“On the day of the CS, we had seven doctors in the hospital, including myself and the CMD, who is an orthopaedic surgeon.
“She was delivered of one baby and immediately we brought her husband into the theatre to see for himself, while she was still open.
“He wasn’t surprised because the first scan she did elsewhere confirmed one.”
According to Uzoma, a few days later, Obinna and her husband dragged the management to Alagbon Police Station, where the case is presently being investigated.
They have also served a court notification order demanding for N250 million.
The Doctor added: “Never for once did we offer them money.
“The management of the hospital only asked them not to pay the balance of the bill since they claimed they spent more money buying double baby items.
“Unfortunately, they have continued to threaten the hospital and management.”
The hospital has, however, been in the news a couple of times for the wrong reasons.
In 2018, staff of the hospital and gravediggers at Sabo Cemetery were arrested by the police over the mutilation of a corpse.
This was discovered when relatives of a deceased, 51-year-old Mary Ehinlaiye, came to pick her body for burial.
The family got an initial shock when all efforts to locate the body inside the morgue failed.
The mortuary attendant on duty, after hours of trying to understand what happened, discovered that the corpse had been given to another family.
Both families are from Edo State.
The family given the wrong corpse were said to have buried the body in a Lagos cemetery without confirming if it was indeed their late kin.
Mortuary attendants were able to get hold of the second family, had the body exhumed and handed over to the rightful family.
But it was discovered that the corpse had been mutilated, with some body parts, including womb, eyes, and hands, reportedly removed.
Anthony Lawani, brother of the deceased, immediately reported the matter at the Area N Police Command.
Detectives working under the directives of the Area Commander, Mohammed Ahmadu, extended their investigation to the cemetery, where the corpse was buried, and also arrested attendants at the mortuary in an attempt not to leave any loose end.
Mortuary attendants at the hospital, Michael Olusegun and Olusesi Owamade, were arrested alongside five gravediggers at Sabo cemetery in Ikorodu: Razaki Abesopiti, Okeowo Kazeem, Babatunde Giwa, Ade Aliu and Musiliu Yakubu.
The Administrator of St. Raphael Divine Mercy Specialist Hospital, Rev. Sister Mary Hyacinth, expressed shock over the incident.
Hyacinth said: “We are still in shock over the matter, but police have made some arrests and investigation is ongoing.
“I can only tell you that the police arrested some of our staff who work at the morgue.
“We are ready to give them all the support that they need because we want to know the truth.
“At the end of the investigation, the church will formally come up with an official statement.”
Olusegun said the corpse was intact when it was handed over to the wrong family.
He said: “I have worked in the hospital since 2012 and my record is there for you to crosscheck.
“We have never had such an incident and if I was involved, I will not last this long.
“I was in my office when my assistant Olusesi requested my approval to release a corpse.
“The routine is that the family will take a look at the corpse before it is handed over.
“Unfortunately, in this very case, the members of the (wrong) family were weeping and not interested in examining the entire body.
“That was why the error was not detected.
“Days later, another family came requesting for the same corpse.
“I quickly linked them up with the other family and we went to exhume the body.
“I was also shocked that it had been tampered with.”
Olusesi corroborated his supervisor’s claim that the entire body parts were complete before the corpse was handed over to the wrong family.
He said: “There were two women of the same height in our morgue.
“Normally, the family member is expected to check properly before signing.
“In this case, the man in tears just briefly looked at her face and said it was their sister.”
One of the diggers Razaki Abesopiti, however claimed the Sabo cemetery does not have good security, which makes it easy for anyone to stroll in and dig up a grave.
Abesopiti said: “We do not have good security here.
“We have just gatemen whose duty is to control the movement of people in and out of the cemetery during burial.
“Everyone goes to sleep at night because it takes the devil to dig up a grave.”
Abesopiti identified the devil as Kola Anifowoshe, who was on the run then.
He said: “They have arrested him severally and charged him to court.
“After some months, they would release him and he comes back to Ikorodu.
“As soon as they release him, you will notice that some of the graves have been tampered with.”
Ahmadu, who confirmed the arrest of 10 persons in connection with the incident, said: “We are screening them to be sure who and who participated in the act.
“The family are from Edo State, but their wife who is deceased was from the eastern part of the country.”
he stated asserting that it is the responsibility of the police “to investigate and unravel what happened.”
But the then Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, who paraded the suspects on November 20, 2018 at the State Command headquarters in Ikeja, said “Olusesi Owamade, a mortuary attendant with the approval of his supervisor, Michael Olusegun erroneously released the corpse to another family.
“To recover the corpse, the mortuary attendants contacted gravediggers at Sabo cemetery to exhume the corpse for onward handover to the rightful owner.
“At present, it is established that the suspects conspired among themselves and dismembered the body of the deceased by cutting off the two wrists and removing her eyes for a yet-to-be determined reason.
“Investigation is ongoing while an effort is on to arrest one of the gravediggers by name Anifowoshe currently at large.”
Edgal warned hospitals and owners of morgues in the state to be wary of the kind of people they employ to manage their facilities.
Two Surgeons in the hospital have also been in court over allegation of negligence that led to the death of a patient.
The surgeons: Dr. Taiwo Shogunle, 53, and Dr. Adeleke Olusegun, 43, were said to have been the cause of the death of their patient, Omojola Bamgboye.
The duo were arraigned before a Lagos Magistrates’ Court after operatives of the Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos investigated the matter.
According to the investigation team led by Inspector Monday Omoigui, the suspects were arraigned before an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court, Lagos on a one count charge of felony, to wit, murder.
Police prosecutor, Superintendent Eshiet Eshiet, informed the court in charge No L/28/2016 that the accused persons committed the offence between December 18 and 19, 2015 at St. Raphael Divine Mercy Specialist Hospital, Ijede, Ikorodu, Lagos.
Eshiet told the court presided over by Magistrate A.T. Omoyele that the doctors unlawfully killed the man during surgical operation by negligently abandoning a foreign body, towel, in his abdomen.
He said the offence the offence is punishable under section 222(2) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The accused persons denied the allegations in the open court and the Magistrate admitted them to bail in the sum of N500,000 each with two sureties each in like sum. – The Eagle Online
