…Police launch manhunt

By Ayodele Popoola

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The Ondo State chapter of the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners, has condemned in its entirety, the attack on their members by a commercial driver, identified as Gabriel,  who reportedly lost his child at the Mother and Child Hospital in Akure.

In a statement issued by the chairman and secretary of the association, Dr. Makinde Olugbenga and Dr. Adeniyi Adetayo respectively, the group said the doctors on call made efforts to save the life of the patient.

The association also denied a report that the workers on duty did not pay attention to the sick boy.

The statement reads: “It saddens our hearts to inform the general public of the unwarranted premeditated attack on hapless doctors on call duty at Mother and Child Hospital, Akure by a patient’s relative (father) of a chronically ill child rushed to the facility on March 24, 2023 at about 11pm.

“While the paediatrics call doctor was in the Emergency ward attending to a patient, a five-year-old male child chronically ill-looking was brought in by his parents. At the time of arrival in the hospital, the child’s condition had deteriorated and immediately the call doctors rushed to see the child leaving what she was doing since the condition looked more severe.

“The child was also noticed to be gasping. Upon arrival, the doctors immediately attended to the child and began resuscitative measures on him. Despite the assistance of another senior doctor who until then was busy in the Obstetrics and Gynecology department, joining to assist her colleague by using her phone to illuminate the cannular site, the patient finally died.

“In the process, the senior doctor who came to lend a helping hand was assaulted with a cutlass and sustained grievous bodily injury and she is currently undergoing treatment.

“We wish to inform the Hospital Management and the general public that this assault on our Doctors and Nurses was premeditated, contrary to the misinformation being circulated in the public domain that the doctors on duty were pressing the phone rather than attending to a chronically ill child.”

The Hope Metro had reported that Gabriel, reportedly went berserk and attacked one Doctor Olajide with a cutlass, while he threatened other staff of the Mother and Child hospital, in Akure, after the loss of his five-year-old son.

It was gathered that the incident happened between the hours of 11pm and 3am at the hospital premises which eventually paralyzed all activities in the hospital for hours.

The man, who is from Owena-Idanre was said to have gone inside his car angrily and brought a short cutlass which he used to beat one of the doctors on duty who almost went into coma after inflicting severe injuries on her body.

Other staff and patients in the hospital ran helter-shelter for their dear life for the fear of being attacked by the man.

An eyewitness, who does not want her name in the print told The Hope Metro that the man and his wife suddenly rushed in their sick child into the emergency ward with a cry for help in order to save his life who was almost at point of death.

“Immediately the man came in with the child, all the nurses on duty came to his rescue and the child was admitted and was put on life support even without paying a dime.

” The father of the child was later told to pay the sum of N8,000. But unfortunately during that process, the child gave up the ghost,” she narrated.

“We learnt that the deceased had been sick for almost six months and his parents decided to keep him at home using self-medication or traditional means.

“What then prompted them to rush him to the hospital for treatment at the eleventh hour was yet to be known.

One of the staff of the hospital who also pleaded anonymity confided in The Hope Metro that the stomach and the scrotum of the diriver’s son  were swollen at the point of admission.

“The waste product that was extracted from the deceased  showed that he had been given some concoctions merely sighting it’s colour,” he added.

The management of the hospital immediately called on the Oke-Aro police division for their rescue as the father of the child looked more furious.

It was gathered that the presence of the police, including the Divisional Police Officer of the division did not terrify the man as he threatened to kill anybody that came his way.

The man eventually went away with the remains of the deceased after the police failed to arrest him.

Meanwhile, the police in Akure have launched a manhunt to apprehend the driver.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya said she was yet to be briefed about the incident.

Though the doctors and nurses resumed work yesterday afternoon, they were working with fear of further attack, as the culprit threatened to come back to deal with them.