A two-month-old baby has died in Abuja as a result of lack of oxygen for treatment following the nation wide strike embarked upon by doctors.
Hospital sources said if the baby had been placed on oxygen at the time he was brought there, perhaps, he would have lived. They told Sunday Vanguard that the baby had high fever and was brought to the hospital when the situation became critical and the mother was allegedly told by the doctor on duty that the condition was extremely bad.
Although the medical team was said to have made frantic efforts to revive the baby that was brought to the hospital about 12 am Sunday, the efforts did not yield result as the baby gave up at about 4pm that day.
Efforts made to speak to the mother of the baby, who was crying uncontrollably, did not yield result even as the hospital management kept mute while the medical doctor who tried to revive the baby to no avail was in a bad mood.
Meantime, a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Margery Okadigbo, pictured above, has appealed to the striking doctors to consider the poor Nigerian masses and call off the industrial action they embarked upon as a result of unresolved welfare packages with the Federal Government.
Speaking in an interview, the senator representing Anambra North and a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Okadigbo, appealed to the doctors to respect the ethics of the profession they sworn-to and go back to work.
Okadigbo, who has attracted five health centers to her constituency and will be giving out empowerment packages to over 700 people including 100 widows and physically challenged people, said that it was the masses that were suffering the effect of the strike. She said,
“I have a personal experience on the issue of strike in the health sector. About 11 years ago, when my husband (the late Chuba Okadigbo) was sick and we had to take him to hospital, we took him round three hospitals in Abuja here and he eventually gave up.
“It is a bit difficult to understand while someone who took an oath to save lives and failed to think about it but rather chooses to go against that oath. To me, it is personal but we can only appeal. We at the Senate Committee level had a meeting with them.
“Yes, some of their demands were reasonable. They need improved conditions of service, but some of the demands are a bit frivolous in my opinion but we can only appeal that they should all come together and find a way to resolve the issue.
“People are dying daily as a result of the strike while the demands include mundane things like justifying the need for better conditions of service because you spent more years in the university than other health workers. The NMA should be reasonable with their demands.”
- See more - Vanguard
This is exactly the problem. And part of the reason why the doctors are striking. Please whose duty is it to provide an oxygen tank in a hospital owned by the government? How is this case even related to the doctors being on strike? I'm glad that they at least mentioned that there was a Dr on ground even though they happily reported that he was "in a bad mood". I can tell you for free how many people die on a daily basis in govt hospitals surrounded by doctors who are not able to save them due to lack of the most basic life saving tools/equipment.
ReplyDeleteAlso please anybody that is foolish enough to quote ethics and oath taken by doctors should please tell me where goods and services are offered for free to doctors.
Summary, it's not the doctors that are the problem. The Nigerian government just can't be bothered about the lives of it's citizenry to provide a functional health care system.