A surgeon with the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) has been sacked while all the medical personnel involved in the kidney surgery the surgeon performed on one Joshua Afolayan have been suspended.
Afolayan, a teacher, had petitioned the state government complaining that one of his kidneys was removed without his consent by the surgical team.
In the account of the 39-year-old he had an auto accident that damaged one of his kidneys for which he underwent a surgery to remove the damaged kidney.
In the narrative which he also shared on social media, Afolayan claimed that test carried out before the operation showed that his other kidney was in perfect condition but to his surprise the two were removed by the surgical team.
He said further that they made him believed that it was only one that was removed until medical tests proved otherwise.
The decision to sack the surgeon and suspend those involved followed the submission of a report by a seven-member Independent Panel of Enquiry set up by the state government to investigate Afolayan’s claims that one of his kidneys was unlawfully removed during the surgical procedure at the hospital.
A statement issued on Friday by the Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Oyebanji Filani, announced the state government’s decision.
Filani said that the surgeon that carried out the operation has been dismissed from the service of EKSUTH, while all members of the surgical team present during the procedure have been suspended for one month, pending further administrative review.
He stated that in line with the panel’s recommendation, the government would bear the full cost of a new kidney transplant for Afolayan, including his post-transplant care and transplant-related medical maintenance for a period of two years.
Afolayan in an interview he granted Punchng called for the arrest of the unnamed surgeon.
“He is supposed to be in detention by now. I’m very sure that if it were a private hospital that did this, the government would have sealed it off,” he told the publication.
