The University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH) has rejected claims that it treated Obadiah Mailafia, the former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), shabbily before his death.
Recall that the Middle-Belt Forum had in a statement accused doctors at the hospital of refusing to resuscitate Obadiah.
MBF further stated that despite advise from foreign health consultants, medical doctors at the hospital failed to yield to their advise.
According to the forum, even when the wife could feel the pulse of the deceased, the doctor allegedly stated that there was nothing they could do since they had already pronounced him dead.
According to Premium Times, Bissallah Ekele, chief medical director at UBTH, said the allegations made by the MBF were false
The CMD stated that Mailafia had been attended to at two hospitals where he tested positive for COVID-19 before he was eventually transferred to the facility when his health had degenerated.
“I can confirm in my honor that all the allegations circulating in the media are false. We never asked for any deposit before commencement of treatment. The doctor on duty that day was on ground and received the patient and he was never at any point refused oxygen. In fact, he was placed on a high-flow-oxygen to enable fast breathing,” Ekele said.
“It was unfortunate that his health deteriorated rapidly despite all efforts to save his life.”
Also speaking, the doctor that attended to Mailafia, Dr Usman Galadima, narrated what transpired.
“I was on duty between Saturday, September 18, and Sunday, 19. So when I resumed work in the morning, I was informed that we would be expecting a patient from CBN and I informed my staff -the nurses and a hygienist to prepare the VIP room and the general medical ward,” Galadima said.
“An ambulance from EHA clinics arrived in the afternoon. We adorned our PPE and rushed to meet the patient. He was already on the ambulance oxygen and from his oxygen consumption level, I noticed he was in a severe condition. We placed him on a highflow oxygen with no delay and wheeled him into the VIP section in a wheelchair.
“We are a tertiary referral centre for severe and moderate cases of such conditions. I discussed with the patient and the wife the kind of illness he has, the cause and treatment procedure before we started treatment. The wife informed us that the CBN is fully behind the patients’ management and that we should give him the best and that is exactly what we did.
“The patient got a bit uncomfortable later in the night so we attached an official to stay with him and monitor his vital signs because of the severity of his condition. We used about four cylinders of oxygen on him throughout the night. In the early hours of the following day, we noticed he was deteriorating in spite of all the treatment procedures. He could no longer sustain breathing and we had to start resuscitation. Sadly, we couldn’t save him.”
According to him, the former CBN Deputy was already dead before a foreign consultant intervened.
