The deaths of one Loveth Ovwiomodiowho during childbirth alongside the baby have become a subject of controversy between a private hospital in Lagos State, R Jolad Hospital, Agege, and a registered nurse anaesthetist, Prince Ovwiomodiowho.
The latter, father and husband to the deceased, is accusing R Jolad Hospital of causing their deaths, alleging the hospital of manhandling a caesarean operation his wife underwent at the facility, which resulted in her death, and that of the unborn baby already named, Jason, before the stillbirth.
Ovwiomodiowho also claimed that the hospital is destitute of capable man and machines to the point that during the surgery they turned to phone-torch saying, his wife and son bled to deaths.
“Major surgical and resuscitation equipment was not available. There was no reliable oxygen system, no laryngoscope and no fictional ventilator. She was left to breathe by herself via an endotracheal tube during surgery.
“There was no electricity throughout the surgery. At some points, they were using phone torchlight for surgery. Due to the unimaginable and gross incompetence of the surgical team, haemostasis could not be secured; she was bleeding from multiple bleeders. My wife and son eventually bled to death, and the theatre floor was a river of blood despite various colloids that were infused. Imagine leaving with the horror of the scene,” the bereaved told Punchng.
However, the hospital management in an interview with the same publication pushed back at Ovwiomodiowho’s version, claiming his wife’s and son’s deaths were the negative consequences of the family’s religious practice which forbids them from taking blood transfusion.
“Between you and I, we know that in childbirth, one important thing that can happen and throw everybody into a panic state, but which can still be remedied, is blood loss. And when there’s blood loss, you have to replace it, especially if the loss is much. There’s nothing that replaces blood.
“But we had been given a strict instruction against blood transfusion because Prince and his family belong to the Jehovah’s Witness religious group and they don’t allow blood transmission.
“And this, you know and I know, everybody knows that if so much blood is lost and no replacement, there’s nothing one can do.
“So, the question of not having adequate manpower to take care of what the wife had is not true,” it quoted the hospital’s Medical Director, Abiola Fashina as saying.
