Joy was written on every face, when Mrs. Fidelia James gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. But she will never cuddle the bundle of joy that she had carried for nine months before delivery.
Like an adage says: ‘There’s many a slip, between the cup and the lip.’ The joy that welcomed the baby lasted for just a moment, as the mother started bleeding profusely, until she died, right under the nose of a male nurse at a private hospital in Lagos.
Mrs. James’s death on August 22, brought deep sorrow to her husband and family members.
They cried endlessly, and it was hard to comfort them because the baby is the late woman’s first child.
As the family was grieving, the husband was preparing for a showdown with doctors at the hospital, who couldn’t prevent what appeared to him as a preventable death.
The staff of Testimony Medical Centre and Maternity Home, at Ejigbo, Lagos, where the 28-year-old woman put to bed, said that she died as a result of the loss of blood.
But the victim’s family argued that she died due to the hospital’s negligence.
As far as the victim’s husband is concerned, the hospital killed his wife, because the doctor left his job for a male nurse to handle.
But the hospital management has documents to prove the cause of the woman’s death.
One of the documents states: "The primary cause of death, stated on her death Certificate, was Primary PPH (Postpartum Haemorrhage; meaning excessive bleeding occurring after child delivery), while the secondary cause was DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation; a situation where her blood was not clotting.)
The husband, Mr. Dickson James, questioned the competence of the male nurse, who handled his late wife.
According to him, since his wife died, the hospital, where she attended ante-natal for six months was yet to tell him what actually led to her death, or the cause of the sudden excessive bleeding.
James said: "Since the day my wife died, there has been this uncaring attitude from the hospital management.
"They only gave me a death certificate, but nobody has given me any useful information or made me to see reasons why she started bleeding or what really happened."
The Nigerian Compass spoke with the Medical Director, Mr. Tiamiyu Bello, who is also the resident doctor.
He explained that Mrs. James’ medical history showed that there was no sign of complications, when examined during her ante-natal days.
Bello further explained that he works only on week days and at weekends, he travels, leaving the male nurse, Mr. Toyin Obafemi to handle the hospital. Obafemi is a registered nurse said Bello.
He said: "When Mrs. James was admitted on that Saturday, she was not yet in full labour. It was around midnight that Mr. Obafemi called me, while I was in far away Osun State, to say that she had given birth, but was bleeding. He said that she had a little tear at the virginal, which had been stitched. Mr. Obafemi told me that he had checked all the edges of the uterus and there was no tear there, yet the bleeding did not stop.
"He said the blood was coming from the raw surface of the uterus, which is the place in which the placenta was implanted. When the placenta is removed after delivery, the place might be raw."
Obafemi on his part told the Nigerian Compass that Mrs. James was given Ergometrin twice to stop the bleeding, and a Pitocin drip was further given to contract the uterus to stop the bleeding, but all efforts failed.
At that point, Obafemi asked Mrs. James’ parents who were at the hospital with her to go and look for blood for the woman.
He said: "I called the relatives and told the mother that definitely we will need some pints of blood. Unfortunately, the General hospital was on strike. They tried to get blood from some laboratories, but couldn’t. It was at that point that we decided to try another private facility nearby. The facility has a blood bank. It was on their way to the hospital that the woman died."
A medical practitioner, who spoke with the Nigerian Compass, on condition of anonymity, said that a resident doctor was expected to know the numbers of government designated blood banks that operate 24 hours across the state.
When asked why he did not call the emergency services to ensure that blood was provided, Obafemi said only his boss had the numbers of the blood banks.
Bello, on the other hand, said that the 24-hour blood banks only work in theory.
His words: "People say the blood banks work 24 hours, but unfortunately, they don’t work at midnight. In this area, if a person is here between 7 and 8p.m, I can get a lab that will get blood. But 9 to 10 and 11p.m even the General hospitals would just say the lab man is not around. And at that midnight time, it can be pretty difficult."
James questioned the competence of Obafemi, who stood in for the Medical Director of the hospital to undertake the baby’s delivery, after he found out that he is just a nurse and not a doctor.
Obafemi, in his own defence, said: "I went to school of nursing in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. Right now, I’m a registered nurse, which guarantees I have the qualification to take delivery. I’m also trained in a basic life support."
Bello, in his own reaction, said that he had always felt comfortable letting Obafemi take delivery of babies since he employed him in November 2009.
He added: "A registered nurse should be able to handle that. He has been delivering babies every time. Even after this James’ case, he had delivered more than two or three babies; except for surgical cases, which are when I’m called?"
The medical director also admitted that he had not reached out to the victim’s family on the assumption that the family had gone to the village to bury their dead. He however promised to pay them a condolence visit.
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