May 30, 2017 was supposed to be the start of a new beginning in her marriage. Weeks earlier Christina Ohunyan, 40, had been diagnosed of myomectomy, commonly known as fibroid.

Doctors had told her that the tumour growing in her uterus was the reason she had not been pregnant four years after she got married to John.

As she walked into the operating theatre of the Orile-Agege General Hospital, in Lagos that Tuesday afternoon, she was also trying to balance a mixture of emotions.

Though she was happy that she would finally be rid of a malignant growth that had stood between her and the joy of motherhood, like many patients going under the knife, she was scared that something may go wrong. A devout Christian, Mrs Ohunyan said a quiet prayer that everything should go as planned.

That prayer was not answered.

After asking routine questions about her medical history, a doctor at the hospital handed her a consent form to sign.

Minutes later she was lying on a bed in an operating theatre with about six medical operatives arranging surgical knives and arranging other equipment in preparation for the surgery. Moments later, a lady, who was later confirmed to be an anaesthetist approached her with an injection and inserted it around her lumbar spine.

Immediately the fluid in the injection was pumped into her she started feeling a burning sensation around her lower limbs. The sensation was unbearable, and she was yelling so loud that the anaesthetist had to quickly discontinue the procedure.

“The injection they gave me, after they administered it, I started feeling a peppery sensation and I was shouting. They asked what was the problem? I said I could no longer feel my legs. The peppery sensation was so much, that they said they could no longer continue with the surgery,” she said in her near-whisper voice.

By the time she was wheeled back to the ward, she discovered she could no longer feel her lower limbs. Doctors encouraged her to lay still hoping that after some hours the effect of the injection would wear out.

She was also told that the surgery had been rescheduled for two weeks later but when she woke the next day she discovered she had become paralysed from the waist down. The surgery to remove the myectomy was never done.

She later discovered that she had urinary or faecal incontinence – the inability to voluntarily control urination and defecation. She now permanently wears adult diapers.

Mrs Ohunyan said since the incident happened, several top officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, including the commissioner, Jide Idris, have visited her but nobody has told her or her husband what really happened in the operating theatre that afternoon and how she became paralysed.

“They were just telling me there is no problem that everything would be all right,” the woman told PREMIUM TIMES.

Despite assurances from the hospital and officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, her condition has only minimally improved – more than 15 months after the botched surgery, Mrs Ohunyan is still mostly confined to her narrow bed in a ward with 10 other patients at the hospital.


After months of physiotherapy at the Lagos State University (LASUTH) she has managed to regain partial use of her lower limbs – she can now sit and can move around with the help of elbow crutches.

“Injected With Formalin”
While the hospital and state government continue to keep the couple in the dark about what happened on May 30, 2017, and how she immediately became paralysed after being injected, PREMIUM TIMES has been reliably informed by sources knowledgeable of the incident that Mr Ohunyan may have been injected with a fake anaesthesia, which ruined her pelvic floor.

Pelvic floor is a layer of muscles that supports the pelvic organs. The Continence Foundation of Australia says the pelvic organs are the bladder and bowel in men, and bladder, bowel and uterus in women.

“Weakened pelvic floor muscles mean the internal organs are not fully supported and you may have difficulty controlling the release of urine, faeces or flatus (wind),” the CFA explained.

One of our sources, a former medical practitioner at a Lagos State-owned hospital, who asked not to be named for fear of being victimised by the government, said after the botched surgery, the state Ministry of Health carried out an internal investigation and the outcome of the enquiry revealed that the medical director of the hospital at the time, Aduke Odutayo, was reportedly purchasing medication for the hospital through unregulated drug vendors.

“The medical director, Dr. Odutayo usually skips procurement process to go buy drugs herself from Idumota. It turns out that her purchases have ruined a patient,” the source said.

The source said a toxicology test was conducted on the anaesthesia administered on Mrs Ohunyan and when the result came out it revealed that instead of Lidocaine, which was the prescribed anaesthesia, the substance in the injection vials was formalin.

Formalin is a liquid solution of formaldehyde, a gas used in pathology for embalming dead bodies. A mixture of the formalin with methanol and other substances is used to temporarily preserve a dead body.

A 2016 study by Tasnim Masmoudi et al of the Department of Legal Medicine, and the Department of Hospital Hygiene of University Hospital Centre Farhat Hached, Sousse, Tunisia, published in the Pan African Medical Journal said the injection of formalin can result in cell lysis and tissue necrosis.

The medical dictionary defines cell lysis as the “destruction or decomposition, as of a cell or other substance, under influence of a specific agent”.

“In view of its widespread use, exposure to formaldehyde is significant for human health because of its acute and chronic toxicity,” the study noted.

“Cover Up”
The source said that after the investigation, officials of the hospital found culpable were not properly punished for their role in the botched surgery, instead, the Health Service Commission and the Ministry of Health demoted some, others were hurriedly transferred from the hospital.

The source alleged that the first decision taken by the hospital and the State Ministry of Health was not to disclose what actually happened to Mrs Ohunyan and her husband.

“The cover up has been massive. Pages from her records are missing,” the source said.

“Dr Odutayo has been transferred to Randle (Randle General Hospital Surulere), and the doctors who administered the drug as well and most of the nurses who attended to her during the surgery have been transferred.”

Many medical practitioners working at state-own hospitals were shocked by the incident and how the state government has handled it so far but have been talking about it in hushed tones.

Fifteen months after the botched surgery, the Ohunyans told PREMIUM TIMES the hospital’s management and the Lagos State Ministry of Health have refused to tell them what happened to Christiana on the day of the surgery, despite several direct requests and multiple letters from their lawyer for details.

“We have no information about the stage she is and what needed to be done. If I don’t go to meet the medical director to ask what is going on, nobody tells me anything. Even when I go, he just tells me, ‘we are working on it. You can see she is going to physio(therapy).’ But what is the next step? What is being done? Nobody tells you anything,” said Mr Ohunyan.

“We actually requested for a report, but the hospital has not given us a report. All we just know is that she has issues with her limbs and the pelvic floor. But we still do not know what happened. I learnt that they took the sample of the injection for test but the result of the test, we don’t even know,” he added.

Shoddy Treatment
Mrs Ohunyan also suggested that the entire process of the surgery was handled unprofessionally. She said despite informing her that surgery would be conducted several days before, the doctors did not even take a decision on what kind of anaesthesia would be administered on her until she entered the operating theatre.

She said she was not told of risk of spinal anaesthesia or told of alternative options available before the anaesthesia was administered.


Alleged Culprit
When reached for comments, Mrs Odutayo originally said she could not remember the incident.

“I left the hospital two years ago, I can’t remember her,” she said in a telephone interview.

She requested for the name of Mrs Ohunyan to be spelled. Afterwards, she then declined to speak.

“I’m a civil servant. I cannot talk to the media. Go and talk to the hospital’s management or the Ministry of Health,” she said.

Similarly, Funmilayo Ige, the anaesthetist who reportedly injected Mr Ohunyan as well as the head of the pharmacy, Mrs Farinloye, declined to comment when contacted saying as civil servants “they were not allowed to speak to the press”.


Source :https://www.premiumtimesng.com/health/health-news/281326-how-lagos-hospital-injected-patient-with-formalin-during-surgery-crippling-her.html

Minutes later she was lying on a bed in an operating theatre with about six medical operatives arranging surgical knives and arranging other equipment in preparation for the surgery. Moments later, a lady, who was later confirmed to be an anaesthetist approached her with an injection and inserted it around her lumbar spine.
Immediately the fluid in the injection was pumped into her she started feeling a burning sensation around her lower limbs. The sensation was unbearable, and she was yelling so loud that the anaesthesia had to be stopped.


This is the HEIGHT of negligence mehn!
This is the best time to sue!
She should sue the Lagos hospital ASAP.

In a sane society, we are looking at a 150 million dollars compensation here!

Somebody has to pay for this.

This is Nigeria...government establishments don't respect the rule of law. Like oga at the top, like followers!


Even after a lawyer's intervention, the hospital management board still don't give a hoot! If they head to the courtroom and the judge rules in their favor, I'm sure the hospital will not pay a dime in compensation. Instead, they will rather spend money on coverups and appeals.

so pathetic

Just imagine, Formalin or Formaldehyde used in coating urea fertiliser.

I don't know why medical workers especially nurses pour out their frustration on patients?

That is how one yeye nurse almost mistakenly used methylated spirit to clean a friend's fire burn wounds on his whole body.


She should sue their asses out!

Formaline used to preserve corpses? How on earth did they mistake that for an anaesthetic? The hospital has to pay for this

Diagnosed of myomectomy? Also known as fibroid? I give up!

SO many people that have been crippled or lost their lives by act of negligence like this millions of times.

May God keep protecting us and our families in his infinite mercy.

In the US should be an instant millionaire...in dollars. I'm starting to believe Nigeria just doesn't have the money. Can even pay minimum wage salaries. How do u progress. If China can sustain over to 1 billion ppl what is our excuse

This world eh. Go to the hospital for treatment only to get the stupid injection that is life changing. May God save us from incompetent hands. The hospital should be sued to serve as a lesson to others.

omg

The Afonja doctor's license should be withdrawn and the hospital sued for damages..

webincomeplus:
Diagnosed of myomectomy? Also known as fibroid? I give up!

That's Nigerian semi-literate journalists for you

Rot in our health system.

i mean, how could you inject a living person with Formaline??

God forbid bad thing.

The Story tire me...

OP Summarize next time

Now I don't know what to comment sef... Quick recovery

They gotta sue them!!!


You inject someone with a liquid solution of formaldehyde.
You could have as well kill her so you could continuewith the embalming process.

#nonchalant_quacks

The family should sue the hospital.

Serious wahala dey this country ooo.with what I have read above.

Naija my country

Now is the time for the hospital to pay like white

Wow

Is this not wickedness and carelessness?

Now is the time for the hospital to pay like white

Please what is formalin?

Burn The Hos Down

yorubakid:
The Afonja doctor's license should be withdrawn and the hospital sued for damages..

Shut up flat.head

Chai naija my country I hail o! The Dr said she cant remember the patient, can u beat that?