The management of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, Kwara State, on Wednesday, seized a corpse of a deceased patient following the alleged assault of a medical doctor by the relatives of the deceased.
The tertiary hospital’s management also arrested one of the sons of deceased for beating a medical doctor.
It was gathered that
three family members of the deceased on Tuesday reportedly beat up a medical doctor in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) wing of the UITH following what they described as nonchalant attitude of medical staff allegedly leading to the death of their relative.
It was gathered that trouble started shortly after the news of the death of the said relative, who was a butcher, said to be suffering from blood cancer, filtered out.
The butcher was said to have been rushed to the facility on Tuesday after he suffered complication when he reportedly returned from a business trip.
Narrating the incident, a relative of the deceased, Mr. Abdul, said the hospital had held on to the corpse because of the incident.
“We rushed Alhaji Saliu to the emergency ward of UITH around some minutes after 5:00am on Tuesday and despite all our pleading for a doctor to attend to him, nobody obliged us.
“We were surprised to see doctors coming to attend to us several hours later after a medical personel who saw our plight confirmed he was dead. That infuriated the relatives and they reacted by descending on one of the doctors that came. Since then, they have vowed not to release the corpse unless we produce some other people that beat the doctor,” he said.
When contacted, the Head, Corporate Affairs Unit of the
UITH, Mrs. Elizabeth Ajiboye, confirmed the incident, saying that medical doctors under the aegis of Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (ARD) in the hospital were protesting the assault, “urging the management of the hospital against the release of the corpse without arresting and prosecuting the culprits.”
Ajiboye, who urged members of the public to stop attacks on health workers, said that the particular patient’s case was presented late with severe complications.
“The patient in question was one of such cases presented to the hospital late and with severe complications. Nevertheless, the health workers on duty, especially doctors swung into action but while battling with his life, he convulsed. He was stabilized from that stage, prompting the doctors to take over another case requiring an emergency attention.
“Three of the patient’s relations pounced on one of the doctors on duty, pinned him to the wall, and punched him severally but he managed to escape from them.
“This led to the arrest of one of patient’s relatives by the security operatives attached to the hospital. As at the time of this report, this person is still under the watch of the security personnel while the other two are being searched for.
“Meanwhile, the doctors under the aegis of Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (ARD) are protesting the assault, urging the management of the hospital against the release of the corpse without arresting and prosecuting the culprits,” she added.
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