Drama ensued at the Mother and Child Hospital, Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Saturday as a yet-to-be-identified man allegedly attacked medical workers at the hospital after his son died.
The man was said to have gone haywire when his son passed on in the hospital as he beat a doctor and nurse on duty with cutlass and chased other medics, blaming the staff of the hospital for death of the five-year-old boy.
The incident was said to have paralysed all activities in the government-owned hospital for several hours.
After beating the medical practitioners, it was gathered that the angry man allegedly left the hospital with the remains of the deceased.
A source said the matter was reported at the ‘B’ Division Police Station, Akure, but saying the police could not arrest the attacker.
The source narrated, ” The man and his wife suddenly rushed in their sick child into the emergency ward with a cry for help in order to save his life who was almost at a point of death.
“Immediately the man came in with the child, all the nurses on duty came to his rescue and the child was admitted and was put on life support. The father of the child was later told to pay the sum of N8,000 but unfortunately during that process the child gave up.
“When he was informed that the boy was dead, he angrily rushed into his car and brought out a cutlass which he used to beat a nurse and a doctor on duty. He was really mad. So everyone on duty had to run for safety.”
Reacting to the incident, the state chapter of the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners, condemned the attack their numbers. The association also denied a report that the workers on duty did not pay attention to the sick boy.
In a statement issued by the chairman and secretary of the association, Dr Makinde Olugbenga and Dr. Adeniyi Adetayo respectively, the group said the doctors on call made effort to save the life of the patient and not doing another thing.
The statement read, “It saddens our hearts to inform the general public of the unwarranted premeditated attack on hapless doctors on call duty at Mother and Child Hospital, Akure by a patient’s relative (father) of a chronically ill child rushed to the facility on the 24th day of March, 2023 at about 11:00PM..
“While the pediatrics call Doctor was in the Emergency ward attending to a patient, a five-year-old male child chronically ill looking was brought in by his parents. At the time of arrival in the hospital, the child’s condition has deteriorated and immediately the call doctors rushed to see the child leaving what she was doing since the condition looks more severe.
“The child was also noticed to be gasping. Upon arrival, the doctors immediately attended to the child and began resuscitative measures on him. Despite the assistance of another fellow senior doctor who until then was busy in the obstetrics and gynecology department, joining to assist her colleague by using her phone to illuminate the cannular site, the patient finally died.
“But to the great surprise of the doctors and other present in the hospital, the patient’s father stormed out of the ward and returned thereafter with a cutlass, moving from ward to ward and assaulting any doctors and nurses on sight, the other hospital personnel were not spared.
“In the process, the senior doctor who came to lend a helping hand was assaulted with a cutlass and sustained grievous bodily injury and she is currently undergoing treatment.
“We wish to inform the Hospital Management and the general public that this assault on our Doctors and Nurses was premeditated, contrary to the misinformation being circulated in the public domain that the doctors on duty were pressing phone rather than attending to a chronically ill child.”
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami, said she was yet to be briefed about the incident.
