“Business with Human Lives”: Ekure Family Alleges Medical Negligence After Father D!es at Oghara Teaching Hospital

The family of Mr Hartley Ekure is calling for justice after medical negligence at Oghara Teaching Hospital, Delta State, led to the death of their father on September 11 2024.

Endurance Ekure, the deceased’s daughter, recounted the traumatic experience her family endured during her father's treatment, detailing a series of events she claimed were marred by misconduct and negligence by hospital staff.

According to Endurance, Mr Ekure was initially taken to a nearby hospital after collapsing in Sapele, Delta State, where he was placed on oxygen and later referred to Oghara Teaching Hospital.

Despite being placed on ventilators and undergoing a tracheostomy, his condition deteriorated.

Endurance alleged that the nurses and doctors responsible for her father’s care were neglectful and engaged in unethical practices, including stealing oxygen meant for patients and reselling prescribed medication.

“The negligence was beyond belief,” Endurance stated. “We spent over 10 million naira on my father’s treatment, buying oxygen and medicines, but the hospital staff sold the drugs to other patients and refused to provide basic care.”

She further accused hospital staff of abandoning her father in his critical state, leaving him malnourished and unsanitary.

"The nurses were always on social media during their shifts. They didn’t clean my father, and he suffered greatly."

The Ekure family claimed the misconduct reached a peak when IT students were assigned to manage her father’s care, leading to severe complications from a botched procedure that allegedly caused an infection.

Endurance, currently abroad, provided evidence of the money she sent for her father's treatment, asserting that despite her family’s efforts, her father died due to the hospital’s gross negligence.

The Ekure family is seeking legal action against Oghara Teaching Hospital, calling for accountability and justice for Mr Ekure’s death.

“We want those responsible to face the law. This is not just about my father—it’s about the many others who have suffered the same fate in these hospitals,” [/b]Endurance said.

Endurance not only shared her family’s painful experience but also revealed a chilling detail — more than ten patients reportedly died during her father’s two-month stay in the hospital.

She recounted that her father spent over two months in the hospital, during which time more than ten other families faced similar tragedies.

[b]“Before my dad died, over 10 people had already passed away. Families were rushing to remove bodies within an hour of death because the hospital demanded the immediate transfer of deceased patients to the mortuary, regardless of how much money had been spent on their care,” she said.

“It felt like they were running a business with human lives.”

Endurance also disclosed that one of the grieving families reached out to her for financial assistance, as they couldn’t afford the mortuary bill.

She recalled stepping in to cover the cost in a moment of desperation for the affected family.

"The hospital staff don’t care how much you spend — even if you’ve paid millions — the moment your loved one dies, they rush you to clear the body from the ward.

The hospital is yet to respond to these allegations.

Icon45i:
This negligence is common to govt hospitals

Icon45i:
This negligence is common to govt hospitals

AnonPoet:



https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/09/delta-family-alleges-negligence-after-fathers-death-at-oghara-teaching-hospital/

tutudesz:
Please if you have any medical emergency, find the nearest military hospital.
I lost my dad due to wicked private doctors on January 31, rush him to a private hospital in Gowon Estate.
I had to beg the doctor to come outside to check him, he just said your father is dead without checking. Rushed to hospital no2, the doctor said the same thing without checking him.
Had to drive from Iyana Ipaja to Yaba Military hospital, were they said he was alive and they started treatment. Unfortunately 2 hours later, he passed away Since that, I hate private hospital

seuncyrus:
"The nurses were always on social media during their shifts. They didn’t clean my father, and he suffered greatly."

Before my dad died, over 10 people had already passed away. Families were rushing to remove bodies within an hour of death because the hospital demanded the immediate transfer of deceased patients to the mortuary, regardless of how much money had been spent on their care

It felt like they were running a business with human lives.

If all this is true, I believe enough has been said already. I don't understand if some nurses hate their jobs or something.

R.I.P to the dead

starbuck:
1st of all before pointing accusing fingers, what was your dad's diagnosis

DrTee1:
We have to be careful as a people.

Already, our health workers are already greatly overworked. The conventional health workers we have left in this country are about the more patriotic ones who have chosen to stay back to help the system.

In a situation where we make claims like this against them because a relative "spent millions" despite being abroad, we may find health workers taking more steps to see fewer patients per time so as to give maximal attention.

You cannot be abroad and claim that health workers in Oghara were on social media when they should be attending to your recently deceased relative. You cannot be blaming them for performing last office rites and moving a corpse to the morgue as soon as certified dead.

This was a patient that spent two months in the hospital, according to you, and had a tracheostomy tube inserted, amongst other care. Clearly, that medical team was not quite negligent. No medical team can do all of that while being negligent.

A patient on a Tracheostomy tube is a Specialist/Consultant's responsibility, working in conjunction with a large team of other doctors who may also be specialists, alongside doctors in various levels of postgraduate training, aside undergraduate medical students. That's aside the Nurses and all other allied health workers that play a lot of roles.

It is not enough to make allusion to those cases that ended up as mortality and not make reference to the many cases that are treated and discharged. Indeed, cases that go to Teaching Hospitals are usually very bad cases that cannot be managed at Secondary level medical facilities, as demonstrated by the referral from the hospital in Sapele to the Teaching Hospital in Oghara.

While there may be indeed cases of negligence, the continued media, physical and verbal harassment of medical practitioners at various levels of practice in Nigeria doesn't bode well for our already friable medical structure.

As it is, many citizens present at the hospital very late, and in very bad conditions, after taking all manners of harmful substances over the years in that name of herbal concoctions as well as unhealthy lifestyles before presenting late in the hospital where the medical staff now have to undo the deed.

We must realise that the best way to treat any disease condition is to prevent it. Where matters are already very bad, regardless of how much is spent, the chances are not assured - not anywhere in the world, but especially worse in third world countries.

We should all be careful.