Judge’s death: Family accuses National Hospital of negligence

The family of Abdulwahab Mohammad, a judge at the Grade 1 Area
Court, Kubwa, Federal Capital Territory, who died of complications
arising from a tooth extraction, has accused the National Hospital,
Abuja, of negligence.

The family alleged that the deceased was neglected by the
personnel at the emergency unit of the hospital for two hours
before he died last Saturday.

The 32-year-old deceased, who was said to have undergone a
procedure to extract his tooth at the Kubwa General Hospital,
reportedly slumped and was rushed to the National Hospital, where
he died.

Abdulwahab’s elder brother, Abdulkareem, said the judge might
have survived if the personnel at the Trauma Centre of the hospital
had promptly attended to him.

Abdulkareem told Northern City News that after the procedure,
the late judicial officer bled for over nine days, adding that
subsequent visits to the Kubwa General Hospital did not solve the
problem.

According to him, the deceased was subsequently rushed to a
private hospital last Saturday, where he was given oxygen to
stabilise him before he was evacuated to the National Hospital.

Abdulkareem said, “It is painful and we may press charges
against the National Hospital to teach them a bitter lesson; what
they did was medical negligence; it is unethical. You can’t keep a
patient out for two hours without oxygen after the one he was on
got exhausted.

“My brother was taken to the National Hospital with oxygen from
another hospital. For two hours, he was outside, they never cared
and they called the unit an emergency unit. Of what use is the
emergency unit in a hospital when you don’t care if a patient lives
or dies?

“He was not attended to and by the time they secured a bed
space, in less than an hour, he was gone because there was no
proper care. They didn’t attend to him; they just allowed my
brother to suffer and die.”

Abdulkareem also threatened that the family might drag the
dentist, who performed the tooth extraction on the deceased, before
the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria for doing a shoddy
job.

He said, “He (dentist) made him (Abdulwahab) to bleed for more
than nine days. Even if the tooth broke during the procedure, there
are instruments used for removing the splinters, I’m a medical
scientist, I know what I’m saying.

“If you want to do a job, do it the way it should be done,
especially one involving human life.”

Abdulkareem noted that his late brother was expecting his first
child, adding that he got married in May this year.

A colleague and friend of the deceased, Umar Kotangora, spoke in
the same vein, stating, “His blood level was about seven per cent
while the oxygen he was given had long been exhausted by the time
he was admitted; he died shortly afterwards. It was so
painful.”

When contacted, Chief Medical Director, Kubwa General Hospital,
Dr Muideen Lasisi, denied admitting the late judge for
treatment.

“We did not admit any judge by that name for care in our
hospital; most seriously sick people are admitted before transfer
or referral,” he said in response to an SMS.

The National Hospital’s spokesman, Dr Tayo Haastrup, promised to
find out about the alleged delay in admitting Abdulwahab, but he
did not respond to subsequent calls and SMS.

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