An Asaba based Correspondent of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), South-south cum Secretary, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Asaba Correspondents’ Chapel, Comrade Oghenero Eghweree, has accused doctors, nurses and other officials at the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Asaba, Delta State capital, for the present health condition of his 2-year-old daughter due to alleged negligence of health officials on duty.
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According to him, his daughter’s health deteriorated, causing her to go into a comatose state after administering alleged wrong drugs on her prescribed by doctors when they took her for medical attention.
He claimed that the unprofessional attitude of the doctor and other officials on duty when they arrived the tertiary health facility caused her health challenge because they delayed in attending to her.
He shared his traumatizing story thus in a post he titled: “How They Almost Killed My Daughter At FMC Asaba Under NHIS Scheme”.
“Staff not on seat, epileptic power and network system and wrong drug prescription, almost cost her her life at the federal establishment in Asaba.
“But let me start the story from the beginning.
“It was a few days after the New Year celebration (Jan. 5), when my daughter developed fever. Thinking it was one of those minor issues we studied her for some time before I and my wife decided to take her to the Federal Medical Center Asaba, haven braced up to face the usual stress of accessing the National Health Insurance Scheme NHIS, at the hospital.
“We got to the facility at a few minutes past 6pm to find the General Outpatients, GOP section in darkness. I provided my phone light to the nurse who took her vital signs and we proceeded to see the doctor.
“After about thirty minutes the doctor on duty started packing his things, telling us that he was about to leave and could not attend to any more patients. He said we should take our baby to the Accidents and Emergency Unit, A/E. After pleading with him to no avail, we went to A/E.
“There we saw a doctor who said my daughter’s information from NHIS has not reached them at A/E. But she took notes about her condition on a sheet of paper then recommended a test.
“Meanwhile, without her details from NHIS the test cannot be carried out. Now we had to wait for my daughter’s profile that was sent from NHIS to the A\E unit. So we waited.
“During this time we were asked to visit the NHIS desk severally to make complaints, which we did. In fact, from NHIS we were redirected to A/E and back and forth throughout the evening. But that was not all.
“At a point we were asked to visit the Records section to know what was happening. We got there to find an empty chair an empty chair and no officer in sight.
“One worker who sensed my apprehension even made a quick call to the person in charge to hurry up back to his seat that patients were waiting for him.
“When the guy arrived I was relieved that my stress would soon be over as he strained his eyes to look into his system.
“To my surprise he got up from his desk and said: “The system is still not working, why don’t you just go ahead and pay the #7000 for the test, instead of waiting for the hospital network.”
“I got pissed at this moment and gave him a bit of my temper, before leaving the section.
“It was now around 10pm. The place was quiet. We had been sent back and forth from NHIS desk to A/E more than five times, still the network issue persisted.
“We were eager to have the test done that evening so we persevered and pleaded with the lady at the NHIS office to have our receipt stamped to enable the lab officer execute the test on my little girl.
“She finally agreed. We took the document to the lab and they took her blood for the procedure. Satisfied with that little progress we left FMC at a few minutes to 11 O’clock that night albeit tired and frustrated.
“We had hoped that at least in the morning the network issue at the facility would be resolved and our daughter would be attended to properly.
“The next day, me and my wife gave FMC some time to put their acts together before returning to the hospital at eleven O’ clock in the morning.
“Yet, to our astonishment we got to the lab and were told that there was no information concerning our daughter in their system and we’re sent back to NHIS unit. By this time my baby’s health had deteriorated further, (so I lost it a little, again).
“I threatened to bring the NHIS office down if my daughter was not attended to immediately, (and I meant it.)
“The guy at the NHIS desk that morning saw the fire in my eyes and went with us to the lab at A/E to have the issue resolved. And that was how her details suddenly appeared in their system.
“We collected the test and continued the stressful FMC Asaba NHIS process afresh. We saw a doctor, and we were directed to the pharmacy.
“The bill was calculated, we were sent back to NHIS for confirmation, we did and went back to the pharmacy to collect the drugs. As usual, we were only given minor drugs like paracetamol, Canosunate and one other and asked to get the last drug outside the facility. (It cost us #8500.).
“So we went home relieved that finally our daughter had been attended to.
“However, we noticed that the girl could no longer walk after the medication. She could not eat either and slept all day.
“The third day, being a Sunday (today, Jan. 8) we returned to the hospital to express our fears over the new development around 2.30pm.
“The two doctors on duty looked at the drugs given to us and asked among themselves who prescribed the drug combination for us.
“That was how we got to understand that our daughter had been given a wrong and dangerous prescription. She had actually been stoned all along.
“They tried to put the blame on us, which we quickly rebuffed. Instinctively, I took out my phone and did a quick video of the doctors on duty.
“To cut a long story short, we were asked to discontinue administering the drugs to her immediately. And we were sent home just like that. As at this moment, my angel is still a shadow of herself.
“I want to use this medium to inform the general public of the harm done my daughter by the unprofessional personel at FCM, Asaba. I hope she recovers from this, even as I hold FMC Asaba responsible for any unforeseen consequence of their action.
“As a conclusion, I want to recommend the training of health professionals to correct their attitude towards patients under the NHIS program. They ignorantly treat us like the facility is free of charge, forgetting that huge amount of money is being deducted from our salaries monthly for the scheme.
“Also, there is need to upgrade the NHIS network systems at hospitals. The situation with the NHIS network at FMC Asaba for example can be really frustrating.
“They should also make drugs available for the program. The anti-graft authorities like EFCC, ICPC etc, should look into the issue of unavailability of these drugs for NHIS program at the facilities to ensure no sharp practice is going on.
“Also, the SERVICOM unit at FMC Asaba, is just there for lip service and do not act on complaints.
“Aside the need to train health workers on the professional handling of patients and caregivers, there is also need for them to have their names boldly written on their uniforms as practiced by security agents.
“This way patients will know who they are addressing for reference sake, because indeed, some doctors and nurses at FMC Asaba are truly evil people”.
