An event planner, @charah_xx has taken to Twitter to lament the death of her friend, Omolara Omoyajuwolo, due to alleged medical negligence.
Using the hashtag #JusticeforOmolara, she narrated how Omolara, a call centre agent with the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), visited Beachland Specialist Hospital, Arepo in Ogun State for treatment for peptic ulcer and malaria before returning home on May 5.
She said that she visited Omolara’s apartment after the so-called treatment and noticed that she vomited each time she tried to eat and was sweating profusely too.
“I started to clean, she vomited again. I went to her neighbour so we could go back to the hospital since she wasn’t getting better, she was breathing hard too,” the lady wrote on Twitter on Saturday night.
“We got to Beachland Hospital AREPO and she saw the same doctor that attended to her initially. I excused them but I heard him say, “I’ll have to admit you.”
“I dashed back to her (apartment) to pick stuff that she’d be needing. Before I got back she had been taken to the wards.
“I met a nurse there giving her some injections through her hands (the way they give drips). Lara was so uncomfortable; she kept on insisting that she couldn’t lie down cos she’s not breathing well. “How am I supposed to sleep when I’m not breathing well?”
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“After a while they left, they put a device on her thumb and asked me to be monitoring it and call for attention once it reads 90. She wasn’t getting any better rather she was getting worse. I went to complain, (and) a nurse came again and gave her another injection.
“The device later stopped working; I detected the battery was low. I didn’t meet any nurse on her wards floor. I went to the floor before hers and complained. I started to look for the doctor. When I got back to the ward, Lara had already sat where I was; she couldn’t really talk.”
She added that Omolara lost consciousness before another doctor came in and upon sighting the victim said that she did not know that the case was that serious.
She disclosed that the female doctor then asked that the victim be placed on oxygen which the nurses were reluctant to get.
“I made efforts myself. At some point, I went to the emergency room to get the oxygen myself.
“I almost lifted it alone before one of the nurses came to give me aid and eventually another collected it from me. She was placed on oxygen.”
She said she was surprised when the medical personnel began to ask her questions about Omolara’s medical history.
“How would you admit a patient without asking her those things initially? She has a card that shows she has been using that hospital since 2019,” @charah_xx wrote.
She said she called Omolara’s two siblings, neither of whom was based in Lagos, to get the medical history.
“Lara doesn’t smoke; she doesn’t have asthma. She only had episodes of chest pain alongside her back (that aggravates from the ulcer attack).”
She said that by 1 a.m on May 6, the doctors at Beachland Hospital said Omolara needed to be referred to another hospital.
“They said I need to get someone to come and pick us up, as their ambulance was not available till later that morning.
“I said I’ll wait because it was already midnight. They said the oxygen they had couldn’t last up to 3 hours (they started touching the cylinder to demonstrate emptiness).
“They declared her bp low and hurried me again. I immediately started to call for help, I made a tweet to call for help (that I later deleted after I found someone) phone calls and all. I took her phone and took numbers from it. It’s already around 2:30 am.
She said she reached Omolara’s colleagues at LASEMA but they said they could not send an ambulance because the call was not on their record.
“I approached the first doctor that attended to her as he was writing the referral letter and tried to ask somethings. He didn’t respond and he said I should allow him focus on the referral note (he wrote it more than once; he was being careful I guess).
“I thought they would let us go with the oxygen; a nurse only brought it to the car door and put it in her nostrils for a while. I even thought she was gonna go with us. They left us and told Lara’s neighbour to move with the “highest speed”.
“They placed her head on my laps and asked me to raise my laps. The windows were wound down as they advised. When we got to LASUTH, the doctors at the medical emergency announced Lara dead and they filled a form ‘BID’ (Brought in dead). Lara died! She died on my laps and in my arms.
“Lara’s health was obviously mismanaged. Lara doesn’t joke with her health; she went to the hospital herself. It’s a pity it had to be Lara, my friend. Lara could be me tomorrow, Lara could be you.
“The health system needs reform. Health mismanagement and negligence of the health workers in Beachland Specialist Hospital Arepo killed my friend Omolara Omoyajuwolo.
“There was no ambulance, there was no supporting oxygen, there was no nurse.”
The hospital management has yet to respond to the allegations.