There was pandemonium on Tuesday at the Federal Teaching Hospital in Gombe following the alleged removal of a dead woman’s eye at the medical facility.
LEADERSHIP reports that the incident had triggered uproar and commotion at the tertiary hospital as teeming youths and women from the community of the deceased staged a protest from Bagadaza area to the Federal Low-cost Quarters where the hospital is located.
Our correspondent, who was at the scene, reports that policemen and other security operatives intervened by shutting the gates of the hospital to prevent the demonstrators from entering and causing chaos in the facility.
However, the hospital management allowed some family members of the deceased woman to take her corpse inside the facility for examination.
In an interview with LEADERSHIP, a biological daughter of the deceased, Na’omi Ibrahim, said her late mother, Halima Ibrahim, fell ill last Friday and was rushed to the hospital for medical attention where she died.
She added that after she passed on, her corpse was deposited in the hospital’s morgue and was evacuated from there on Tuesday for burial.
Na’omi further stated that as the family members opened the dead body to see the deceased for the last time, they discovered that her left eye was missing, hence they raised the alarm.
She noted that under normal circumstances, the bathing of corpses at hospital ahead of burial is done in the presence of family members of the deceased person, alleging that in their own case, they were only called to pick the corpse of her mother when she was already bathed and put in a casket at the hospital.
“It was today we arranged the burial, so we decided to bring her corpse back home so that the family would see her for the last time. When they opened the coffin, I discovered that my mum’s left eye was nowhere to be found. That was when I raised the alarm,” she narrated.
Commenting on the matter, the deputy chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Hospital, Professor Adamu Bojude, assured that the hospital would investigate the matter, adding that if anyone is found wanting, he or she would be dealt with decisively.
According to him, already, an investigation has been ordered to be conducted by the relevant officials of the hospital, adding that a team comprising the Police, hospital’s representatives and family of the deceased have been mandated to monitor the investigation after which the hospital would make formal pronouncement on the development.
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