I was scrolling through my Facebook timeline and happened on this
story by Milly Milly.
This is
Chisom Anekwe (nee Okereke), a young, vivacious, graceful, kind-hearted and
intelligent woman who had devoted her life to helping indigent kids and giving
their lives a meaning. She’s an alumna of LEAP Africa.
Two weeks
ago, precisely April 30th 2017, Chisom died under questionable circumstances at
Magodo Specialist Hospital while trying to birth her third offspring. We
believe strongly that the authorities need to ensure that lives are taken
sacred in hospitals like Magodo Specialist Hospital where such avoidable deaths
are recorded.
Chisom was
admitted in the hospital four days before she got into labour.
She had
previously been diagnosed of high blood pressure during the course of the
pregnancy.
She already
had two beautiful daughters birthed in the same hospital and was there to birth
her third child, a son.
While at
the hospital, no one attended to her when she needed the help to be delivered
of the long awaited baby. She was left for hours in labour. This happened until
her husband created a scene, which eventually caused the doctors to go to her
ward and on inspection they found out that the baby had struggled and died.
The husband
at this point requested for a CS which he paid for and even signed the consent
form presented by the hospital. He was then tricked out of the room to go
prepare for blood transfusion and on getting back, he found out that the
doctors had induced the wife and delivered the dead baby without operation not
minding that the CS procedure had been paid for. This was also without his
consent.
During the
process of delivering the baby, the uterus got ruptured and the doctors left
her like that, no further attendance still.
Shortly
after, the husband noticed she was swelling up in her stomach area and called
the attention of the doctors who said they were getting ready for a surgery, a
preparation that took longer than usual.
After
waiting in vain for the surgical team, the frustrated husband went furiously to
the reception to demand why they were wasting time only to discover the doctor
had sneaked out of the hospital under funny pretences. At this point he got
other hospital staff to wheel her out of the hospital and in that process
Chisom died!
This is the
story of most young women who die while giving birth as a result of the
callousness, ignorance and carelessness of inexperienced doctors.
In this
era, we shouldn't be talking about Child and Maternal Mortality especially when
it can be avoided. This could have been avoided but it wasn't and now Chisom
Jane Anekwe is a victim and has been added to the statistics.
We demand;
1. That
Magodo Specialist Hospital, Shangisha, Lagos, be investigated for their actions
and the subsequent death of Chisom.
2. That
both the Nigerian Medical Association NMA and the Medical and Dentist Council
of Nigeria, MDCN ensure that supposed Specialist Hospitals who claim to have a
resident Gynecologist are verified.
3. That
there be justice for Chisom Okereke Anekwe!
#SaveTheNextVICTIM
#Justice4Chisom
#Fight4OurDaughters
Cc:
Ihunegbo Ikechukwu Moses
This hurt me so bad when I read it.
There are lot of questions that ran through my head while reading. Questions
like;
1. Why no one
attended to a woman who had pregnancy induced high blood pressure? If she was
admitted four days before she went into labor, didn’t that mean her impending
birth was high risk?;
2. Why the
husband had to cause a scene before the Magodo Specialist hospital staff deemed
it fit to do their jobs?;
3. Was the
negligence the cause of the baby’s death? If so, shouldn’t the hospital be
brought to book for TWO deaths?;
4. If the
request for a caesarean section by the husband was considered unnecessary or
out of his area of expertise, why did the doctor acquiesce and have the
hospital collect his money?;
5. Is uterine
rupture a real thing? The answer is yes! So if that happened to Chisom, why was
she left unattended?;
6. Why did the
doctor run if he done his job as ethically and professionally as he should
have?
While I am cautious about calling
out and blaming doctors, especially because I don’t know what extenuating circumstances
precede their decisions, I think this doctor and the staff on duty were negligent
on many grounds. This story is not unusual as many of our hospitals – public and
private – are hubs of pain infliction instead of the other way round. Our
doctors are overworked and tired, nurses are apathetic and in many cases,
downright cruel, and other staff seem immune to the suffering of the sick. A
life was lost because we run systems that allow incompetence, negligence and
apathy for people’s suffering. Chisom is dead as a result of this failing
system but we can prevent the next case of death-by-malfeasance.
There is a campaign going to now
seeking justice for Chisom and we can be a part of it. Join the campaign here
and help prevent another senseless death of that mother, sister, wife, cousin,
aunt, niece, friend, colleague or neighbor. We pray that Chisom's family finds strength in this trying time.
And beyond that, what needs to be
done to improve our health sector so there isn’t a continued waste of Nigerian
lives?
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