ABIRIBA COMMUNITY: ORGAN HARVEST ALLEGATION, WHAT WE FOUND AT MBAISE HOSPITAL

WHAT WE FOUND OUT AT MBAISE HOSPITAL

Upon arrival, this reporter met Dr Ohanyere Alex who also attended the late Joseph Urum on the day he passed on.

Dr Ohanyere Alex, gratuted from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2010. He worked briefly with the government before proceeding to private practice. He admitted that having Joseph in his hospital on 25th February.

“It was at about 1am on 25th that I got a call from a friend of mine that they had an emergency situation, and asked if I was around, I said yes, I was around”, he began.

“An hour later, I called him to know why they hadn’t arrived, he said their vehicle broke down on the way. I told him my vehicle was not available that I would have gone to bring them. After that I slept off. Two hours later, he called again that the found a way and managed to come.”

“When they got here, I saw him, they said the patient needed surgery, I asked them who told them that, they said it was from a hospital they went to. I asked them why the hospital didn’t do it, I can’t remember what they said, they said they went to another hospital. But there’s what doctors call “already contaminated case”. A situation where the person has been having self medication or another person has been handling the case. To handle such a case is sometimes difficult because either the original problem is already bad or the previous medication may hinder what you want to do.”

“As soon as I saw him, I told those that brought him that this person can not enter theatre, they asked why, I told them to look at the eyes, because that’s the first thing we check. We call it, clinical pallor. There was “no blood” in the eyes.”

“What did I do, I started testing for different things. I started calling for blood donors. I told them that our rule requires me to havey own scan. Even though they came with a scan result that said he has “perforated intestine.”

“I conducted an examination to confirm if he has perforated intestine but he didn’t react the way he should. I checked his BP, nothing, but his pulse was about one hundred and ten or hundred and twelve.”

“And when your BP is low and your pulse is high, it means one, you don’t have enough blood, two you don’t have enough water in you, three, “your heart is stopping.”

“We call it, “Hemodynamic Collapse”, haemo means blood, dynamic means movement, that blood movement is going down.”

“So I first gave him an injection that will stop the pain, because the pain was intense.”

“I began blood transfusion, I may not say it sequentially, but thank God there’s a record. I told them to wait for the blood to transfuse then I will check his BP, if his BP gets up to 100, then he can carry anaesthesia, I set the blood transfusion in a way that I check it every two hours. At about afternoon, I came back to check on him, I noticed that his kidney had already “stopped working”.

“How do we know? If you’re not able to make urine after four hours. In order to be sure, to know if he is deliberately holding the urine or as a result of the pain, I fixed the catheter so that the urine will not have to stop, as it is coming from the kidney, it flows straight.”

“After six hours, nothing. I now confirmed that the kidney had started failing, just like the heart. There is a drug called Fusemine and normal saline, in order to wake the kidney from sleep, I injected it. After two hours, the guy asked me to remove it. He said, “Why are you people disturbing me? I want to sleep.” I said, we want to save you. The others asked if I cannot take him to the theater, I said you can only take who will survive to the theater.”

“So I asked them to go, the person that brought him said no, that I should do whatever I can to help him. I told them to wait, that if he stabilizes, we will take him to CT that the CT will tell me if the surgery will be useful. All this while, he was calm but the only thing was that he was slipping small, small, I knew…., the last thing a doctor will tell you is that your person will die. He can only tell you that everything is in God’s hand. They told us in school that, “Don’t give up, because miracles do happen, so we don’t give up on anybody. All this while, my oxygen has finished, we have a headquarters at Afouzi, I sent an okada man and he went to bring a bigger one and I fixed it for him to stay alive while we try our best.”

“At a point, I just thought of checking the water in his stomach, I used a syringe and a needle and brought out water, I noticed that the water content was too much which the scan result did not tell me. We could not do our own scan because he was not stable enough to be moved to where the scan will take place. After the first blood transfusion, and, I couldn’t operate on him. You don’t operate on someone who is not able to make urine, otherwise, anything you inject in him will remain there and he will swell.”

“After I used the syringe and needle to do what we call “tapping” I found out that there’s massive water in his stomach. After I removed that small quantity, about 10 ml, he tends to feel better, as if he had space to breathe. I said ok, let’s go. Before we moved him to the theater. That opening was made to drain the water, before, if God shows mercy and if he remains alive, we move him to a machine that will assist his breathing.”

“I called the brother to sign before I made that opening, as if I knew.”

“I treated them like my own because I know the person that brought them. They ate my food and had their bath with my own water.”

“When I opened that place, if you see the amount of purs that came out of it. I just thought of taking a photo of it which I did.”

“He was talking. He asked me what I was doing. In order to keep him alive, I didn’t give him any injection that can make him sleep. I only used the one that will make him not feel pain around the area I opened. We call it “local anaesthesia”.”

“When I finished, we were happy but I knew he was not going to make it. I told them that this condition must have been on for at least two weeks for human flesh to be this rotten. But they said it started yesterday, I said maybe he didn’t tell you what has been happening to him. A then cleaned him with normal saline and there is one antibiotic called Rosephin, I also used it to clean him. There’s what we call a suction tube, that is what you use to do the cleaning.”

“I told them that I noticed that bacteria infected the place and had produced toxins. I called the man that brought him, there was another lady that came while I was draining the water in his stomach. I told them, “I am overwhelmed, that I am surprised that the man is still alive till that time.” ”

“I noticed that everything has stopped working. He was on oxygen throughout the time. I told them to brace up. I comforted them. After about an hour, he passed on.”

WHY DID FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE UMUAHIA REJECT HIM?

DREAM NEWS, in order to unmask the veil, visited Federal Medical Centre, FMC Umuahia to know why a health institution like that would not attend to an emergency situation. Our crew met the Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Darlington Madubuko who gave their side of the story.

He explained that the main reason was that there was no bed space to admit him. According to him, the hospital made it mandatory to admit patients even when there is no bed space, especially emergency situations, in order to save lives, but people started taking pictures of patients being treated on the floor and started making derogatory posts against the institution.

As a result the hospital decided to manage patients only when there’s bed space, so as to avoid painting a bad image of the hospital. He emphasized that the deceased was never their patient, since he was never admitted by the hospital.

He therefore called for understanding by the public while assuring that in no distant time, their new emergency facility would be completed which would complement the existing one and will accommodate more patients.