Alleged Conspiracy and Unjust Treatment at LASUTH, Rights Group Petitions Lagos First Lady, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu to Address SOS Letter

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The Human Rights Monitoring Agenda, HURMA has forwarded a SOS letter received from a poor Lagos family on unjust treatment at LASUTH to the office of Lagos First Lady, Her Excellency, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu.

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The family members in their SOS letter to HURMA Central office dated Fri, June 25, 2022, reported the unhealthy treatment faced at LASUTH and requested for all possible assistance to save them from the present situation.

HURMA requested both the Lagos first lady, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu and the Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Professor Adetokunbo Fabambo to investigate the alleged act of conspiracy and forceful diversion by some attending doctors, as raised in the letter.

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HURMA’s letter to Lagos First Lady on Tue, June 28, 2022 titled:
“Alleged Conspiracy and Diversion at LASUTH. A Urgent Request to Save the Life of Ashimi Joan in Female Surgical Ward” reads in part:
“In high spirit, we express our appreciation to your day to day display of commitment towards ensuring delivery of tenets of democracy to both women and children in Lagos state, especially in the area of health. We pray Almighty God would reward our efforts with ultimate success.

“We wish to bring to your notice the case of a 76 year old woman who has been on admission in Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) since 2nd of May, 2022 with several experience which her poor family members do no longer see as anything beyond conspiracy and continuous act of exploitation by the management.

“According to report in the SOS letter to our office, the family members were forced to register the patient for a private ICU despite their appeal for government ICU which they considered far more cheaper. After the surgery recommended, another breakage occurred and the old woman has been in pains for weeks. The doctors attending to the family are now insisting again that another huge amount be paid into the private ICU without which the patient will not get necessary attention.

“Attached with this letter is the complete letter from the family sent to our office.

“Although the primary interest of the family is to use our office to appeal to the hospital management to assist the family wave the expenses of ICU and rescue the life of the poor old woman, we will appreciate a proper investigation into the allegations of forceful diversion to private ICU that was raised in the letter. This is to prevent further occurrence of such and as well save other poor Lagosians from such treatment in future”

The SOS letter signed by Mr. Ashimi Nurudeen on behalf of the family and sent to HURMA central office titled:

“SOS Letter to Rescue The Live of Our 76years Old Mother At Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH)”, reads in parts:

“We hereby urgently call on your organization as recommended to us by some members of the public, to assist us from our present predicament.

“It is about our mother, Mrs. Ashimi Joan, a Lagos state indigene that has been sick since the middle of April this year. It started with severe stomach ache and she was taken to nearby hospital where she was diagnosed of indigestion that she would need surgery.5

“We took her to Solace private hospital at Mushin where we did scan and they said she has INTUSUSCEPTION. The surgery to correct it was done but the wound didn’t heal and we later took her to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) on the 2nd of May, 2022.

“They carried out series of test at LASUTH and after about two weeks, they decided to do another SURGERY and they asked us to register in a private ICU so that after surgery, they will take her there .We told them that we have gone to AYINKE HOUSE to enquire about the cost of ICU which is far cheaper but they said NO that we should go for the private ICU which is #750,000.00 for three days. The private ICU is 250,000 per day while the government ICU is 350,000 for 2 days. We opted for government own but the doctors declined and asked us to go for private ICU or else they will not do the surgery.

“Since we didn’t have option, we ran around to gather the money and deposit 500,000 naira. Infact, we had to appeal to the doctors to allow us to take her to the female ward after 2 days that we cannot afford more than that
and we finally paid 589,000 before taking her to female surgical ward.

“However, some part of the wound did not heal and they told us breakage occurred. They later opened it more and installed what they called SYLO without any consent consent from us.

“How cruel can this be for a 76 year old woman. The SYLO was done, where her stomach was totally opened and her intestines were packed in an unsterilised catheter bag. Since over a month the stomach wound is still opened and lack of aseptic technique whilst dressing the wound introduced more infectious and lead to significant drainage of fluids out of the wound. This has hindered our mother’s mobility and free movement that she can’t longer walk independently, in fact total lost of mobility and confidence that she prayed for death each days that passes. Till date her stomach still wide opened with no planned date to take her to the theatre.

“Since the SYLO was done we have been buying various expensive drugs prescribed by the doctors to fight infection and to prepare her body for another surgery. On Friday last week they resolved to take her to the theatre to stitch the wound again and ask us to go and deposit another 750,000 in the private ICU again which we declined that we can’t afford it and that we are yet to settle the debt of #589,000 which we took for the first operation. Also, more than #2,000,000.00 formerly borrowed from our friends and other relatives.

“As a result they asked us to sign a written document that we are going to accept any consequence that occur without taking her to the ICU after the surgery which we accepted and they came later to also take our verbal consent which was recorded.

“However, they refuse to go ahead with the surgery claiming that we must get a bed space at the ICU despite all agreement .

“If we were capable, we would have paid without any delay, but we have no means for now. Mama’s sickness has drained everybody.

“We want you to use your good office to help us out to appeal to the management of the LASUTH to help the family and wave the expenses of the ICU to save the family from financial embarrassment.

“We are still going to in cure more expenses after surgery . HELP US OUT. The innocent woman is dying in silence”.