The management of the Lagos State University Teaching, Hospital, Ikeja has denied allegations of abandoning four-year-old Omonigho Abraham, who was attacked by two dogs, Punch reports.
Contrary to their claims however, Omonigho’s father, Odia Abraham, who alleged the hospital was not being honest maintained that until the report was made public on Thursday, October 30, 2014, his son has been neglected by the management of the hospital despite his terrible condition.
According to the chief medical director of the hospital, Professor Wale Oke, Omonigho Abraham was going through a healing process which his relatives misunderstand and declare that his condition is getting worse.
The CMD in reaction to the initial claims by the victim’s father who said his son’s head was emitting an offensive odour, after being neglected for two weeks by the medical personnel in LASUTH said, “The boy was brought here about 34 days ago. He had been bitten by dogs. He had sustained severe injuries to his scalp.
“By the time he was brought here, we saw the injury was extensive and that he had some dead tissues. Because of the extent of the damage, we had to stop the bleeding, remove the dead tissues and administer antibiotics to the boy for the healing process to begin. It is after this (granulation), that you can develop a plan to cover the scalp.”
Furthermore, the odour emitted by the injured boy’s scalp was not as a result of decay according to the CMD but due to the chemical composition of Omonigho’s skull which had been ripped open during the attack by the German Shepherd dogs.
Also, Oke while reacting to the claims of the hospital management demanding drugs from the victim’ father against the government’s directives said, “The governor instructed the Ministry of Health to take over his case and subsequently, all money spent was refunded, the boy has had two surgeries, he’s been on admission, he’s eating, his wounds have been dressed and the hospital has not asked him to pay a dime.
“Mr Odia said doctors have not been coming to attend to his boy, whereas he’s not always with the boy in the hospital. He’s left many times and his wife has been the one to stand in for him. Doctors make entries every time. There is no way you will come to LASUTH with that kind of injury without getting attention.”
Meanwhile, while revealing that the Lagos state governor, Babtunde Raji Fashola had intervened in the matter, Oke maintained that Omonigho’s father was taking advantage of his son’s condition to make some money.
Although the victim’s father received the claims by the hospital management with great shock as he stood by his initial claims that his son was actually abandoned.
He said, “They should stop saying that they didn’t abandon my son for two weeks. It keeps irritating me. For those two weeks that the boy was here, the consultant who I know as the doctor, never showed up. It was the student doctors that came here.
“I spend most of my time here. The students would come, write their report and leave. I would ask them, ‘my son’s drugs are finished, can you write a prescription for me? And they would reply, ‘wait for the professor.’ I asked them when the professor would be coming, and they wouldn’t answer me.
“If everybody said I should wait for professor, at least he should show up once to recommend drugs to us, which had finished. Last week, I was fed up and carried my son. I told my wife I was getting mad because my son was not getting better.
“I later learnt my wife, who had earlier noticed the boy’s condition, had told the nurse not to let me know because I wouldn’t be able to bear it. I later saw his head being opened one morning and broke down into tears.”
