UNILAG student passes away at FMV in Lagos, Family accuse management of negligence

Samuel Omolaye, a student at the University of Lagos, died there while receiving treatment, and his family has accused the management of the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Metta, Lagos, of carelessness.

On February 1, 2023, Samuel reportedly complained of feeling ill, and his family members hurried him to the hospital for emergency care.

Upon arrival, it was discovered that medical staff had declined to treat the 25-year-old because there were not enough available beds in the facility.

Comfort, Samuel’s mother, said that despite the medical staff noticing that Samuel was in urgent need of care, no bed space was offered so his condition could be checked until three hours after Samuel passed away at the hospital.

Comfort said, “My son complained about weakness of the body. I took him to the Federal Medical Centre since we have the hospital card. We got there around 3pm and were told that there was no bed space. I was directed to another hospital but I started begging the workers in the hospital as I could not risk taking him to another hospital because of his condition.

“After pleading for about three hours, they later told us that a bed was available and my son was admitted. When the doctor on duty checked him, he discovered that Samuel had a shortage of blood and told me to get blood and left us.

“My son kept lamenting seriously over the weakness he was experiencing in his body. I complained to a nurse but was surprised that when the nurse said the doctor did not record it in the system that my son needed blood.”

Comfort claimed that Samuel’s blood was not drawn until 8 o’clock by a different doctor who was later assigned to care for her son, and that when the results were released at 11 o’clock, it was discovered that Samuel required four pints of blood.

She added that when she inquired about where she might buy blood because Samuel’s father wasn’t there, she was informed that the blood bank had closed.

The grieving mother said that she had been seeking for blood in vain when a nurse gave her the name of a blood donor who was willing to donate blood for her son for N10,000 per pint and with an additional N10,000 fee.

“When I obliged to give him the money, the man went into the laboratory, returned and informed me that the laboratory had blood and that they claimed they wanted to use it for surgery the following morning.

“He told me to beg them and when I pleaded to get blood to save my son, they told me to pay N9,600 to the cashier which I did. I brought the receipt to them but they told me that the money did not reflect in their system, and they held on to the blood,” Comfort said.

The mother claimed that once the blood was given to a hospital employee, she waited for the payment to be confirmed. She added that when she went back to the ward, the blood transfusion had not yet started.

“I questioned the nurse and she said they needed to warm the blood. It was while they were warming the blood that my son died. It was not too long that he died that other all the workers on duty started rushing out from where they were sleeping to start pressing Samuel’s chest. I told them that they took my son’s life. We just buried him on Monday.”

When contacted, the hospital’s head of clinical services, Saheed Ogunme, expressed his condolences to the family of the dead and said that Samuel, a sickle cell patient, had been transferred from a private hospital after his condition had gotten worse.

He said, “When they arrived at our facility, our beds were filled. We had to tell a patient who was a military man to permit us to use his bed while we moved him into a wheelchair. That was how we were able to attend to him.

“We also do not allow commercial donors in the hospital; we only permit patients and patients’ relatives blood donors. Meanwhile, the pint of blood that was available as of then belonged to a woman who was in labour.

“We could not give out the blood until we were sure that the woman was stabilised. We are also going to investigate the case of a commercial donor that was mentioned and we will take action against anyone found culpable.”