The father of a 300-level student from the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, is demanding justice after his son died at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Akure, alleging that the death was due to negligence by a consultant doctor at the Ondo State government-owned hospital.
Prince Bola Adebobola, the father, has accused Dr. (Mrs.) Alabi, a consultant in the Haematology Department, of repeatedly refusing to attend to his son, Goodness Adedotun Adebobola, who had been assigned to her care. The father claims this alleged negligence led to his son’s death.
In a petition addressed to the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr. Adesina Akintan, and copied to the state Commissioner for Health and the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Adebobola stated, “I am very pained, heartbroken, and saddened to report to your Management the negligence of one of your consultant doctors, Dr (Mrs) Alabi of Haematology Department, in treating my son, Adebobola Goodness Adedotun, a 300-level Computer Science student of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, which, invariably, led to his untimely and unjust death.”
The petition is dated August 22, 2024. Akintan told Sunday Vanguard last week that the hospital management had launched a probe into the death, saying, “We are probing claims.”
Adebobola detailed the events leading to his son’s death. He stated that his son was admitted to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Ward of UNIMEDTH on August 3, 2024, for malaria and body pain, and passed away on August 11, 2024.
“My son was admitted into the UNIMED Teaching Hospital on the 3rd of August, 2024, for malaria and body pain (he was an HBSS) and was assigned to Dr (Mrs) Alabi as her patient. My son was given Bed 14 at the A&E Ward,” Adebobola said.
He further explained, “While my son was on sick bed, the doctor on duty directed his mother to look for a certain Dr (Mrs) Alabi as she was the one to attend to him. On getting to her office, somebody gave my wife Dr (Mrs) Alabi’s number. Whilst she called her, she was informed that Dr (Mrs) Alabi had been repeatedly informed that she had a patient at the ward. To our surprise, Dr (Mrs) Alabi refused to show up for three (3) days in spite of repeated calls by the patient’s mother. The failure and refusal of Dr (Mrs) Alabi to come to attend to my son made the patient’s mother seek further inquiry as to whom could be of assistance since younger doctors were afraid to attend to my son because he had been assigned to a senior doctor.”
He also narrated an encounter with another doctor, saying, “My wife was told that one Professor (Dr) Osho would be coming from UNIMED, Ondo, to see his patient at the ward. From there, my wife made a contact with him, and when Professor (Dr) Osho came and saw my son, he explained that he was not his patient and that my son had been assigned to a particular consultant in the person of Dr (Mrs) Alabi, who refused to show up. But due to the situation, Professor (Dr) Osho had compassion on him and examined my son and then prescribed drugs based on the laboratory results conducted at UNIMED Laboratory.”
Adebobola noted that Dr. Osho recommended a blood transfusion due to his son’s low blood PCV of 18%, but his mother declined, promising to build it up.
He said, “Meanwhile, my son’s average stable blood PCV was usually 18% whenever he complained of malaria. Also, he had never been transfused since he had been given birth to (noted in the patient’s case file). Yet, Dr (Mrs) Alabi, who was the assigned consultant to my son, still hadn’t shown up.”
Adebobola continued, explaining that Dr. Alabi eventually showed up on the fourth day and stopped the drugs prescribed by Professor Osho, which were helping his son recuperate.
“Alabi now prescribed other drugs, including very strong antibiotics, without any blood replacement drugs, and insisted on transfusing my boy. Based on the insistence of Dr (Mrs) Alabi on blood transfusion, my wife procured screened blood with all the necessary tests carried out from the UNIMED Blood Bank. While giving the first pint, there was a strong reaction to the blood by my son, then it was stopped. Later, another blood was given, but, this time around, my son’s body tolerated it.”
He added, “During the period of transfusion, Dr (Mrs) Alabi was nowhere to be found in spite of repeated calls from the boy’s mother. On the following day of the blood transfusion, when Dr (Mrs) Alabi was to come around to review the patient’s situation and to complete the second round of transfusion, she only directed two (2) ladies, whom we found out were working in her office, to transfuse my son. But the ladies refused to do it because I personally requested that the blood should not be transfused without having on ground a drug to counter negative reaction of blood transfusion in case it occurs again like the first time.”
Adebobola recounted that a senior consultant, Dr. Akintan, who happened to be the CMD, accidentally intervened when he saw Adebobola’s wife’s friend in the ward.
“Fortunately, a few minutes after this situation, a senior consultant was passing by in the ward, and he saw a known woman who happened to be my wife’s friend. The man now asked her for her purpose of being in the ward, and she told him about the blood transfusion but didn’t explain to him what had initially happened. Immediately, the consultant doctor instructed one of the two younger doctors who were following him to do the needful for us, and the younger doctor complied. It was later on that day we knew that the consultant was Dr. Akintan, the CMD of UNIMED Teaching Hospital, Akure.”
