Hope James
Husband of deceased, Mr Sunday Samuel, has accused the Ondo State Trauma and Surgical Centre, Ondo Town, of causing the death of his wife, during a surgical operation.
The deceased, and mother of four, Late Mrs Fola, was reportedly diagnosed with breast cancer, and thereafter placed on medication for about a month in the hospital ward before she was taken to the theatre for surgery on Monday, July 25.
According to her husband, the operation was constantly disrupted by power outage, as the medical facility repeatedly switched between electricity and generator.
He was also devastated that the hospital did not make an oxygen cylinder available during the period of the surgery despite paying for it.
Sunday said, “My wife had breast cancer and was admitted to the Ondo State Trauma Centre, where she was stabilised for close to a month.
“On Monday, July 25, she was taken from her ward and moved on a wheelchair into the theatre room around 10.30am. Shortly after they moved in, power supply went off, and they had to call the person in charge of the generator to switch it on. They kept on alternating between the use of the Nigerian power supply and generator throughout the operation and at some point, could not find the person in charge of putting the generator on when there was power outage”.
He also noted that all the demands of the hospital were met before Fola was taken to the medical centre.
“We bought oxygen the previous week when she was still in the ward. It was not as if she needed oxygen, but they said she might need it at night. So, I paid for it and they went to purchase it and placed it by her side. For more than five days, she did not use it. It was one morning that I arrived that they said she was unconscious in the night and had to use oxygen. We also bought two pints of blood; one was used before the surgery and the other was meant to be used during the surgery. So, if it was fuel that they needed, I would have got it too, instead of rationing their fuel. I wondered why they should manage fuel while carrying out a surgery at the expense of someone’s life. My wife had the chance of surviving if those scenarios had not played out,” he added.