By Jimoh Sulyman
When the news of the demise of Timothy Bolanle, a seven years old boy who was said to have died at the children specialist hospital, Centre Igboro, due to suspected negligence of the medical personnel got to the social media, it sent a shockwave of opinions and innuendos to both the online and offline platforms.
National Pilot gathered that the young Timothy was declared dead by the hospital at around 7:40am on Wednesday under a mysterious circumstance, however the hospital claimed that the boy died due to complications from an infection.
The parents in their explanation disclosed that their child died due to typhoid that resulted in an untold abdominal pain.
National Pilot in its bid to get the true picture of the incident made a trip to the family of the late Timothy, where the distraught ridden parents gave an account of all that transpired at the hospital
The bereaved father, Segun Bolanle, while lamenting his loss, accused the hospital of only wasting the life of his son for no just reason due to their negligence and carelessness.
“If the nurse had attended to my son on time then, it is possible that my son would have survived.
“The nurse told my wife that she was tired hence my wife should wait for the nurses coming in for the morning shift”, he said.
“The whole issue started on Tuesday night when my wife called me to inform me of my son’s illness while I was still at work and we agreed that he should be taken to the Children Specialist Hospital at Centre Igboro.
“When they got there, she was given a drug prescription which they claimed they didn’t have in stock and she went out to get it from somewhere else, where she got an injection for the cost N7,500.
“The nurse that attended to my son, after giving him the injection, told my wife to bring Timothy back to the hospital by 6am the following day. As at the time they were discussing I was already at the hospital, when I saw the state my son was, I pleaded with them to place him on admission but they said No!
“The doctor said that there was no bed space and I offered to go home and bring a bed for my son, but they still refused, telling me to take him home and that I should be giving him oral re-hydration solution.
“The following day that is on Wednesday, around 4am in the morning, my son started complaining of stomachache and I asked him if he would eat and he said yes, so I made him a plate of beans, after eating, my wife took him with her to the hospital as per the appointment.
“All of a sudden, I got a call from my wife that the hospital refused to accept the boy, so I rushed down there, on getting there I saw my wife wailing ,while nobody paid any attention to her.
“I went straight to the ward to seek for the doctor but he wasn’t there, I was told he had not resumed work and that was around 9am, but the nurse that had earlier refused to attend to my son broke the news of my son’s death to me.” Segun narrated.
He added that the hospital threatened not to release the remains of his son to him if he refused to pay a sum of money to the hospital the arrangement which infuriated him and which was the reason he created a big scene at the hospital.
“The hospital management also threatened to get my wife and I arrested for grieving the death of our Timothy and for airing our grievances due to the manner at which the hospital handled his case.
“After the whole scene at the hospital, at around 1pm when the body had started to bloat, I took my son away from the hospital, that was several hours after his death”, he said.
Segun however disclosed that he had buried his son on Wednesday, amidst tears and wails at Oke-Oyi Cemetery where he bought a space for his interment.
He also assured that he would not relent until he gets justice for what was done to him.
Crying uncontrollably for several minutes, the grief-stricken mother, Lateefat Bolanle, could barely mutter a word to our reporter.
“Very early in the morning, he started complaining of stomachache, in fact he didn’t sleep all through the night, so I had to rush him to the hospital as early as 6am.
“On getting to the clinic, I met with the nurse that administered the injection the previous day, she acted very rudely, asking why did I come to meet her, and I told her that she was the one that told me to bring him this morning.
“But she refused to attend to my son, claiming that she was tired, she told me to wait for the nurses on next shift. After my insistence and pleas for her to attend to my son, she screamed at me that I’m disturbing her.
“After a while, my son started acting funny and his condition got worsened, I could feel life leaving his body, and in that moment despite me screaming for help, none of the medic at the hospital came to my rescue, I was only told to rush him to the emergency room.
“By the time I got to the emergency room and at the point of placing him on the bed, the unthinkable happened, my son died, my Timo is gone forever” ,she lamented.
The mother of three including the late Timothy wept bitterly along with many of the family members present.
National Pilot learned that the mother, just like other patients at the hospital, were being made to pay N200 service charge for injection, which they claimed was meant for spirit and cotton wool.
A very strange and disturbing trend as the facility is a government owned hospital.
Lateefat however noted that the late Timothy walked into the hospital himself contrary to the statement made by the Kwara State Honourable Commissioner for Health, Dr Raji Rasaki while speaking to National Pilot.
Dr Rasaki said, “the woman brought in the child dead, not that he died in the hospital, when they came, they were trying to argue with the nurses on duty but after the doctor examined the boy, that was when he realized that the boy was brought in dead.
“Nobody in our facility will refuse any patient, the patient was attended to and was given a prescription, how can one now say such a patient was rejected, that allegation that the hospital refuses patient is not true.
“The boy’s parents were unable to get the specific drug prescribed but rather bought another brand, and that the brand initially prescribed was much more stronger and effective than the one they bought.
“The medication given was said to be taken at an interval of twelve hours, but the parent brought him to the hospital by 6am on Wednesday, whereas he was scheduled to take the injection by 11am according to the first dosage which was taken around 11pm the previous day.
“The relatives only shifted the blame on the nurse on duty and the hospital but we medical personnel can only play our own part and make sure our conscience is clear, then we leave the rest to God.
“Unlike the narratives in the media space, the boy was attended to and medication was prescribed to him and they administered the first dose on Tuesday, so it is not true when they said they were not attended to.
“Assuming they were not attended to, how come the medication was administered to the patient, how come they were given the time to come back for the remaining injection”,Rasaki inquired.
However, he noted that the condition of children can be unpredictable and their sickness is completely different from adult because in their own case, things can get ugly in couple of minutes.
He added that, he understands the pain of the parents, urging them to accept it as the will of God, he however reiterated that the fault was not from the hospital.
National Pilot’s efforts to listen to the hospital’s side of the story proved abortive as the Chief Medical Director of the Children Specialist Hospital, Centre Igboro, Dr. Mrs Folorunsho declined to speak with our reporter.
She said that she was yet to get any directive from the health authorities in the state to speak with the media on the matter.
However, at the hospital which has been under strict security from the Nigerian Police Force, senior medical personnel at the facility spoke with our reporter on the condition of anonymity, saying, “as at the time the doctor was attending to them, the child was found dead.
“On Tuesday when the boy was brought to the hospital, the mother was asked to get some medications and she went to get them, but she got a brand different from what she was told to buy, she got back at around 11pm late in the night.
“At that time, the injection room had closed, so it was the nurses in the ward that usually give injection at that time, and they attended to her,” she said.
The insider however, admitted that as at Tuesday, the boy was quite stable and wasn’t critically ill.
“The Nurse refused to give the boy the injection despite the insistence from the mother because according to her, it wasn’t the right time, the injection was slated for 11am but the mother came in at 6am,” she said.
She also disclosed that the injection was meant to be for a day that is 24hours and not 12hours, also alleging that the bereaved parents assaulted the nurse and a male attendant.
